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SPIRITUALISM 



ANSWERED BY 



SCIENCE. 



BY 



V 

EDWARD W. COX, S.L., F.R.G.S. 




NEW YORK : 
HENRY L. HINTON, PUBLISHER, 744 BROADWAY. 

1872. 



PEEFACE. 

Some of the Critics of the scientific experiments in Psychic Force, 
conducted with the aid of certain mechanical tests by Mr. Ceookes, 
F.R.S., in the presence of Db. Hitggins, F.R.S., and myself, have 
erroneously assumed that we were converted by the results of those 
experiments to the creed of Spiritualism. The fact was the very 
reverse. Those experiments proved conclusively that the Force, 
supposed by many to be spiritual, is in fact a Force proceeding from 
the human organism. 

But the anonymous writer of the article in the Quarterly Review, 
entitled "Spiritualism and its Recent Converts," cannot plead 
merely a mistake. He is guilty of deliberate falsehood in making 
that assertion, for he cites a passage from my letter to Mb. Cbookes 
(so that he must have read it), in which letter I expressly thus 
state : — 

Allow me to add that I can find no evidence even tending to prove that the 
force is other than a force proceeding from or directly dependent upon the human 
organization, and therefore, as all other forces of nature, wholly within the pro- 
vince of that strictly scientific investigation to which you have been the first to 
subject it. 

The crucial tests applied by the skill and science of Mr. Crookes 
confirmed the results of a series of other experiments, conducted 
with care and caution, which had been instituted for the purpose of 
investigating if any and what of the alleged phenomena were real : 
and, if real, whether they are physical or spiritual, natural or super- 
natural. 

The conclusion from that patient inquiry has been, that many of 
the alleged phenomena are real, though some are delusions and 
others impostures ; that the Power dignified by the title of Spiritual, 
because attributed to the presence and action of spirits of the dead, 
is in fact a Psychic Force proceeding from the human structure and 
directed by the human intelligence. 

But from what part of the human structure that Force proceeds— 
whether from nerve, ganglion, or brain — if it be the "vital force," 
or the "nerve ether" of Dr. Bichardson — if the directing intel- 

3 



IV „ PEEFACE. 

Hgence is the "Unconscious Cerebration" of Dr. Carpenter, or 
if there be a Soul (or spirit) inhabiting the body and distinct from 
it, by which those effects are produced — are problems remaining for 
close, patient, and extensive research, by steadily pursuing the 
course of scientific investigation which Me. Ckookes has so success- 
fully begun. 

I am pleased to be enabled to state that, to promote this inquiry 
by discussion, disquisition and experiment, a Society is in progress 
of formation, to be called The Psychological Society of Great Britain, 
which should be joined by all who are interested in a subject the im- 
portance of which at this time it is impossible to exaggerate. 

For Theology and modern Science are directly at issue as to the 
existence of a Soul in Man. Theology affirms and Science either 
denies or doubts, demanding proofs. If Psychic Force be the 
reality that they who have scientifically examined and tested it 
assert, it shakes to its foundation the materialism of modern Science, 
by the probability it raises that, as a fact in Nature, there is in us an 
entity, distinct from the corporeal structure, which can exercise an 
active force, directed by ink.': gence, beyond the limit of the bodily 
powers, and which is not material, but something other than that the 
scalpel carves and the microscope reveals. 

The purposes of this brief treatise is to state fully and frankly the 
facts and arguments that have conducted to the conclusion that 
there is such a Force, and a non-corporeal something in us that con- 
trols it, and that Science may yet be enabled to restore the faith Sci- 
ence has shaken in the existence of the Soul and the consequent pros- 
pect of immortality. 

November 25, 1871. 



CONTENTS 



Page. 
Introductory 7 

The Phenomena 26 

Investigation by the Sub-Committee of the Dialectical Society 27 

Is it Delusion or Fraud? 27 

Is it Unconscious Muscular Action ? 28 

Additional Experiments 35 

Are the Spectators Biologised? 41 

"What is the Psychic Force ? 43 

The Theory of Spiritualism 46 

The Scientific Theory of Psychic Force 49 

The Argument for the Psychic Theory 53 

Characteristics of the Force 64 

Conclusion 70 

How to Investigate 75 

Postcript 78 



INTKODUCTOKY. 

Science is the natural enemy of Superstition. 

A superstition is always founded on a fact. It is 
never wholly fanciful. Men note some facts in Nature 
they cannot at once explain and call them mysteries. 
These are the materials with which the imagination 
constructs a fabric of which one part is real and nine 
parts are visionary. 

But a superstition founded on facts can only be 
overthrown by sapping its foundation, recognising the 
realities on which it rests, dragging them into the 
domain of Nature and Science, tearing away the veil of 
mystery, and showing that the facts, about wdrich so much 
of the marvellous has been attracted, are in strict 
accordance with natural laws. 

Science can successfuly combat Superstition only by 
strict observance of the great principle whose enun- 
ciation by Bacon made Science what it is — first, find 
the fact, then the conditions of its existence, and from 
this basis proceed to inquire into causes. 

The argument d priori is equally foolish and fallacious. 
Modern Science was supposed to abjure it utterly. 
Her boast has been, that assertion that a thing cannot 
be because it is apparently opposed to some established 
law of nature, can never be accepted as an answer to 
averments of facts by credible persons which, according 
to the rules of evidence, would be accepted by any 
7 



8 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

judge or jury. But Science is not bound to believe on 
the testimony of witnesses, however competent and 
credible. The duty that devolves upon her in such 
cases is to test by patient and careful examination the 
truth of the fact so asserted ; if, upon such fair and im- 
partial trial it be found to be a fact, to proclaim it and 
to show, as always may be shown, how that new fact 
accords with the other facts of nature. 

If such is the profession of modern Science, such is 
not the practice. On the contrary, hers is one long 
history of practice in direct defiance of principle. She 
has met almost every new discovery by the old and, as 
it was supposed, exploded argument a priori, instead of 
by the Baconian rule of first ascertaining the fact and 
then arguing upwards from it. As the necessary con- 
sequence she has been put to shame continually. The 
circulation of the blood, vaccination, express trains, 
Atlantic steaming, and a host of other novelties, were 
as vehemently opposed by the scientific authorities in 
their time as now is Mr. Crookes's announcement of 
certain physiological facts observed by him, and by the 
self-same argument a priori — that they are inconsistent 
with recognised natural laws and therefore cannot be. 

Mr. Crookes does not ask their acceptance on his own 
authority ; he asks only that the experiments he has 
tried — and which, if established, are of the highest in- 
terest and importance to Science — may be tried by 
others. He describes them in plain words made more 
plain by engravings. He says : — ■ 

The answer to this, as to all other objections, is, prove it to be an 
error by showing where the error lies ; or, if a trick, by showing 
how the trie : is performed. Try the experiment fully and fairly. 



BY SCIENCE. 9 

If then fraud be found, expose it ; if it be a truth, proclaim it. This 
is the only scientific procedure, and this it is that I purpose steadily 
to pursue." 

Not one of the many objectors to his demonstration 
of the existence of a Psychic Force has ventured to 
answer him by saying, " I have tried the experiments 
described by Mr. Crookes, carefully and patiently, and 
the results he stated did not appear." All have shrunk 
from this only philosophical treatment of the question. 
The warfare has been wholly by suppression of one 
half of the facts stated by him and misrepresentation 
of the other half; and some have even condescended 
to personal abuse and vilification, for the purpose of 
discrediting testimony they are unable to rebut. A few 
instances must suffice. 

The Quarterly Review answers a series of experiments 
made with instruments ingeniously constructed by a 
scientific man to secure delicate tests that should not be 
open to the objection that would have been made to any 
evidence of the senses alone, by the unworthy process 
of discrediting the experimentalist and observers. Mr. 
Crookes, F.R.S., the discoverer of the metal thallium, 
the Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science and of 
the Chemical News, is declared to be incompetent to 
devise a simple test apparatus ; Dr. Huggins, F.R.S., 
a Yice-President of the Royal Society, the foremost 
spectroscopist in the world and almost its greatest as- 
tronomer, is wanting in power of vision and capacity 
of judgment ; (a) and my much humbler self, a 

(a) Dr. Huggins is actually condemned by the Quarterly Review for 
having dared be a witness to some mechanical experiments without- 
having first studied Dr. Carpenter's theory of "Unconscious Cere- 



10 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

Lawyer of some little experience in dealing with 
witnesses and evidence, am called " gullible " (a). We 

bration." " To him;" says the Reviewer, "seeing is believing ; but 
to those who have qualified themselves for the study of Psychic 
Force by a previous course of investigation into the class of occult 
phenomena, of which this is the latest manifestation, seeing is any- 
thing but believing." 

(a) The silly story referred to as the sole foundation for this in- 
sulting attack is simply that many years ago, when I was a Law Stu- 
dent, mesmerism, which is now, under the name of somnambulism, 
accepted by all physiologists as a fact, was as fiercely supported and 
opposed as is Psychism at present. There was a boy called Goble, 
who was a somnambulist, and in his sleep-walking exhibited some 
of the most remarkable phenomena of that condition — such as doing 
delicate work, writing, and seeming to read, in the dark with his 
eyes closed. A friend who shared my chambers had taken great in- 
terest in the subject, and thither the boy was brought for experiment 
if somnambulism could be artificially produced. He was speedily 
thrown into the sleep, and in this state of artificial somnambulism, 
he not only did all that had been observed in his natural sleep-walk- 
ing state, but much besides equally curious. He was subjected to 
experimental examination for some weeks by Dr. Elliotson, Dr. 
Marsden, and many other physiologists, who were satisfied of the 
genuineness of his condition. Frequently he read words enclosed in 
five or six envelopes of thick brown paper, each one being sealed; 
and, with a handful of cotton wool over each eye, and two handker- 
chiefs bound over that, he read the advertisements in the Times with 
perfect ea<*e and fluency. In fact, he did in the somnambulist con- 
dition artificially produced what he had done in his natural sleep- 
walking condition. Dr. Forbes, hearing of the case from his scien- 
tific friends, expressed a great wish to see the boy, and asked us as a 
favour to procure for him an interview. Confiding in fair dealing, 
this was done, and Dr. Forbes came, bringing with him Mr. Shar- 
pey. No intimation was given that they had designed a trap. Dr. 
Forbes had asked only to try a test. They brought with them a box. 
The boy was told by them that it contained some writing, and that 
if he would read it they would give him a sovereign. The box was 
placed in his hand. Not improbably there were some arrangements 



BY SCIENCE. 11 

are, in fact, three fools, and all this dirt is thrown for the 
paltry purpose of discrediting our attestation to the 
good faith with which certain experiments were tried by 
Mr. Crookes, and to which Dr. Huggins, as a man 
peculiarly versed in the construction and use of 



within the box which affected the conditions necessary to percep- 
tion ; or it may be no writing there at all. However that may have 
been, the boy, after long trial, said that it was useless — he could not 
" see" (that was his term for the perceptive power he had) what was 
in the box. Upon this his two visitors plied him the more with pro- 
mises ; if he would but try again and read the writing, they would 
give him two pounds— they would publish his name in all the papers, 
and make his fortune. Having thus stimulated him to the utmost, 
they proposed that we should retire and leave him alone, telling him 
that he should have a quarter of an hour by himself to make it out. 
He was left alone. The box appeared easy to open — only a sliding 
cover. Tempted by the great reward offered to him, and the power 
failing, he tried to open the box. This was what the visitors had 
desired and designed. They had made a trap and baited it. The 
cover so temptingly left unfastened was held by a thread which, by 
its severance, marked any attempted opening of it. It was plain 
that he had made the attempt. To those who had seen him times 
out of number read words in sealed envelopes that had not been 
broken, and could not have been broken without detection, one endea- 
vour to draw back an apparently unfastened cover under the stimu- 
lus of lavish promises was, of course, no proof whatever that every- 
thing he had before done, under the conditions that made peeping 
impossible, was imposture ; and Dr. Forbes was called upon, as a 
matter of justice to the boy and to science, to make further trial in 
a manner more fair and under the same conditions of sealed envel- 
opes of paper which had satisfied the many other scientific men who 
had tested him. But, fearing to have his verdict reversed on a new 
trial, he refused it. 

And this is the incident, that happened nearly thirty years ago, 
for which I am declared, in the most insulting language, to be now 
an incompetent witness to the motion of an index to which a board 
was suspended. 



12 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

scientific apparatus, and myself as a person ex- 
perienced in the art of testing truth and detecting 
falsehood, were invited to be witnesses, merely to 
observe and to detect whatever results might be ex- 
hibited by certain machinery. Surely this was not an 
offence calling for personal vilification. The Old Bailey 
practice " If you cannot answer the facts, abuse the 
prosecutor and his witnesses," ought not to be admitted 
into scientific controversy. When Mr. Crookes an- 
nounced his discovery of a new metal, when Dr. 
Huggins published his observations of the new lines in 
the spectrum, they were not met by the assertion that 
they were incompetent or untrustworthy, their apparatus 
worthless, their ejes deceivers, and their senses and 
judgments befooled; but the men of science hastened 
to try the same experiments, and ascertain, by their own 
investigation, what truth there was in what Dr. 
Huggins and Mr. Crookes had asserted. Why, there- 
fore, are these gentlemen to be maligned and vilified 
now for asserting that other experiments had exhibited 
other new facts, and for asking that Science should deal 
with the alleged discovery of Psychic Force precisely as 
it had dealt with the discoveries of the spectroscope. 

It has been stated in some of the newspapers that Dr 
Carpenter is the author of the article in the Quarterly 
Review. I am reluctant to believe it. He is reputed 
to be a gentleman, and certainly no person pretending 
to that title could, even in the conflict of rival theories, 
have forgotten that the intellectual reputation of scien- 
tific men is very dear to them, and should not have 
been thus vilified by another scientific man for so paltry 
an object as the discrediting of one of their experiments. 



BY SCIENCE. 13 

Dr. Carpenter, moreover, is, least of any man, entitled 
so to treat other propounders of new theories. If Dr. 
Carpenter rejects and ridicules Mr. Crookes's demon- 
strations of Psychic Force, at least an equal amount of 
ridicule, is cast by other physiologists on Dr. Carpenter's 
conjectural theory of " Unconscious Cerebration." The 
evidence that supports the assertion of a Psychic Force 
by Mr. Crookes is vastly more trustworthy and demon- 
strative than that adduced by Dr. Carpenter in support 
of what so many of his brother Scientists call his " gobe- 
moucherie." He forgets that in their estimation he is 
himself, if not the most gullible (for that, he says, am I), 
the most gullible save one, for accepting as facts the 
wonderful stories on which he founds his much boasted 
theory of " Unconscious Cerebration." (a) For the 
honour of science, I hope yet to be assured that Dr. 
Carpenter was not the writer of the article in question, 
or that no unworthy jealousy of the reputation of broth- 
er Scientists prompted a^personal attack upon them, so 
ungenerous, so unjust, and so uncalled for. 

The Saturday Review was even more unfair alike to 
the experiments and the experimentalists. It indulged, 
on this occasion, beyond its wont, in the sippressio veri 
as well as in the suggestio falsi. It did not describe the 
experiments truly. It sought to discredit them by the 
familiar process of misrepresenting them. This could 
not have been mere misunderstanding, for the descrip- 
tor) For my own part, I do not share the ridicule showered by- 
physiologists on Dr. Carpenter and his discovery. I entirely accept 
his theory, and I think I see in it a solution of the problem how the 
Psychic Force demonstrated by Mr. Crookes is controlled and 
directed. 



14 SPIKITUALISM ANSWERED 

tions were m plain words, made more plain by engrav- 
ings. 

Here also the contrivance was resorted to of endeav- 
ouring to discredit the experiment by disparaging the 
experimentalist and his witnesses. Here, too, the un- 
scientific practice was adopted of answering a fact as- 
serted by honourable and intelligent men by the argu- 
ment — " it is apparently opposed to something which I 
(the writer) accept as truth, therefore it cannot be ; and 
you, the asserters of it, are liars or fools, wilfully de- 
luding others or weakly self-deluded." 

The Athenceum was not far behind its fellows in this 
species of warfare. It was not, like them, abusive — it 
was even civil in tone and language. But it went be- 
yond them in misrepresentation, misquotation, and fal- 
lacious reasoning. It would take many pages to expose 
all the errors of that article, but one will suffice as a 

specimen of the whole : 

» 

The story of the dining-room table is told in two different ways ; 
the drawers of the report give one, Mr. Serjeant Cox gives another 
version of the affair. . . . . The dimensions of the tables ope- 
rated on by the committee are thus given in the report: "The 
smallest of them was 5ft. 9in. long by 4ft. wide, the largest 9ft. 3in. 

long by 4i|ft. wide, and of proportionate weight Mr. 

Serjeant Cox, on the contrary, states the dimensions of the top of 
the table to be 12ft. by 5ft. 

Now what is the fact f If the reviewer had read 
what he was reviewing, he would have seen that the 
contradiction existed only in his own brain. The ex- 
periment referred to by Mr. Sergeant Cox is dated in 
his memorandum, appended to the report of sub-com- 
mittee No. 1, and was made at a different date and place 
from the experiments reported by the committea The 



BY SCIENCE. 15 

latter closed in May, 1869, the former took place in 
January, 1871, and the table was not the same as those 
referred to by the committee. Moreover, all the re- 
viewers conveniently omit the fact, stated in the report, 
that Dr. Edmonds, whose authority they use so eagerly 
as a dissentient from the report of the investigation 
sub-committee, was not present at any one of their 
meetings, and did not witness any one of the forty ex- 
periments which convinced all who did witness them ; 
his objections being, like those of the reviewers, merely 
an argument why the alleged facts could not be, instead 
of the only answer Science can approve, " I attended 
with you, and watched the experiments yon describe, 
and, after a full, fair, and patient trial, I failed to find 
the results you assert." 

Another part of the article in the Athenceum cannot 
be passed without notice. Eleven persons of intelli- 
gence, social position, in full possession of their senses, 
in the light of gas > and in the dining-room of Dr. 
Edmonds, saw his dining-table, which is unusually 
long and heavy, moved many times in succession over 
a space of several feet, without contact, or possibility of 
contact, by any person present, and in one of these 
lurches, by the force of its motion, it knocked down a 
lady who chanced to be standing in its way. Yet the 
Athenceum resorts to the wretched explanation of this 
well-attested phenomenon that all the eleven persons 
present were deceived by their senses, and that the table 
did not really move at all ! Could scientific dogmatism 
further go ? I should like to see the writer of this 
piece of nonsense addressing his argument to a jury in 
a court of justice. " Gentlemen, eleven witnesses have 



16 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

told us that they were standing together in a well- 
lighted room, at a distance of three feet from a dining- 
table, twelve feet long and five feet wide, and that this 
table swung round untouched by any of them, and 
knocked down a lady who was in its way. I cannot 
impute to these witnesses intentional falsehood, but I 
contend that they were mistaken — that the table never 
moved at all, and I ask you to find a verdict accord- 
ingly." What a shout of derisive laughter would greet 
such an argument in the court, and what ridicule would 
be cast upon it in the journals. Yet that which would 
be scouted from any court of justice in the world is 
gravely advanced by men who call themselves " scien- 
tific," and think themselves sensible, and is accepted 
and printed, without consciousness of its utter absurdity, 
by the editor of a literary journal ! 

It is due to another class, of which the Spectator is an 
eminent example, to acknowledge the fairness and the 
gentlemanly tone of commentaries, which were, in sub- 
stance — " We cannot accept the fact as determined by 
your experiments, but you have stated enough to re- 
quire from competent persons a careful and patient 
scientific examination, with further tests and under 
other conditions." 

And this is all that Mr. Crookes asks for himself, and 
that the report of the Dialectical Society recommends. 

I pass now to the question to which this little treat- 
ise is devoted. 

Is there a Force which, in the presence of certain per- 
sons, without corporeal contact or connection, can cause 
motion in heavy bodies, and produce audible sounds, 



BY SCIENCE. 17 

as by impact, which appears sometimes to be directed 
by intelligence ? 

If there be such a Force in fact, whence does it 
proceed ? 

Is it, as Spiritualism asserts, the operation of spirits 
of the dead ? 

Or is it, as contended by Mr. Crookes and other 
scientific experimentalists, a force emanating from, or in 
some manner directly dependent on, the humaji organ- 
isation ? 

The following pages propose, first, to state the 
proved phenomena, and then to set forth the reasons 
that have led to the conclusion that the force is a 
purely Psychic Force, and not the work of spirits of the 
dead. 

It is objected to this inquiry that, if proved, the 
knowledge would be worthless. I answer by asking — 
Is any knowledge of a new fact in nature without its 
use ? Does any fact staud alone ? Does not the dis- 
covery of one fact invariably lead to the discovery of 
an endless series of other facts that grow out of it? 
Are we so far advanced in our knowledge of Psycho- 
logy, or even of Physiology, that it can be no help to 
these sciences to learn that the Force which performs 
all the functions of organisation operates in certain 
cases beyond the boundary of the living body? If 
this fact be established, it needs no stretch of imagin- 
ation to anticipate its multifold application to the solu- 
tion of many of the now insoluble problems connected 
with the relationship of mind and body, the laws 
of life and health, and the science and practice of 
medicine. 



18 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

It Las "been gravely asked "by some of our critics, 
what right have I, a practical Lawyer, to concern my- 
self about science? My authority as a witness to a 
simple mechanical experiment has been impugned on a 
plea of the incapacity of a Lawyer to understand the 
principles or observe the phenomena of science. I 
answer this objection by reference to Mr. Grove, 
Q. C, at once a great lawyer and a great Scien- 
tist; to Mr. Gwyn Jeffrey, who has devoted his 
leisure to natural history ; to Lord Brougham, who 
wrote on optics, and others whom it is not necessary to 
enumerate. It might be permitted to a very much 
humbler man than they to give some of his hours of 
leisure, as I have preferred to do, to the study of the 
sciences that relate to the mind — to Mental Philosophy 
and Psychology. However that may be, the practical 
knowledge of the principles of evidence, the daily habit 
of looking for the very truth, without prejudice, fear or 
favour, combined with long practical experience in the 
art of sifting and weighing proofs before forming an 
opinion, might by some be deemed rather a qualification 
than otherwise for careful observation, and arriving at 
a fair judgment of what fact is true, what false, what 
real and what imagination or imposture. 

I can only say, as an expert, that if the evidence of 
the existence of Psychic Force, produced under so many 
and various conditions, with such careful experiments 
and under tests so often repeated, is not to be deemed 
a sufficient proof of the fact that motions c f heavy bodies 
and audible sounds of impact upon them are produced 
without contact or material connection with any person 
present (for that is all we assert), however that fact may 



BY SCIENCE. 19 

be explained, the pursuit of truth, must be abandoned 
as hopeless. If the senses of honest and intelligent 
observers are not to be trusted for a fact so obvious to 
the eye as that of a table being moved untouched over 
spaces of several feet, how is the common business of 
life to be conducted? We must close our courts of 
justice, for upon evidence infinitely more disputable 
than that attested by the scientific experimentalists and 
the Investigation Committee, liberty and property are 
daily dealt with by all our tribunals. If the argument 
of the critics be right, we must henceforth banish the 
witnesses who depose to what they have seen and heard, 
and try men for life and liberty on d priori argument 
alone, ignoring the evidence of facts and reasoning on 
what can or cannot be, according to the conjectures, the 
assumptions and the theories of Scientists. 

Much prejudice has been raised against the ex- 
periments that have demonstrated the existence of 
Psychic Force by a prevalent belief that the phenomena 
occur only in the presence of a few professional 
Psychics, and the suspicion of imposture thus suggested. 
This popular error will probably account for much of 
the unreasoning abuse that has been cast upon its 
assertors, such as was not displayed towards the in- 
vestigators of any other of the forces of nature, however 
strange and novel were the phenomena described and 
in their first aspect inexplicable. But, in fact, Psychics 
are frequent in private life. There are few family 
circles in which some of the phenomena of Psychism 
might not be exhibited on patient trial. All the forty 
experimental meetings of the sub-committee of the 
Dialectical Society, and almost all the further ex- 



20 SPIEITUALISM ANSWEKED 

periments here reported, were conducted with Psychics 
found in private life, among personal friends and 
acquaintances, and not with professional, paid, or public 
Psychics, as it has been wrongly assumed. Psychic 
Force is often developed to an extraordinary extent in 
children too young to be capable of contriving or con- 
ducting an elaborate fraud, and too weak to possess the 
requisite muscular power to move a heavy table. With 
all Psychics the phenomena simply occur in their 
presence, without effort of their own will to promote 
or check them, and, as all agree, without the slightest 
consciousness of any attendant sensation, bodily or 
mental. 

And by whom are the facts thus powerfully attested 
denied? By those only who have never tried and proved 
them. If they are not facts, but delusions and im- 
postures, how comes it that not a single investigator of 
repute, after patient and honest examination, has failed 
to be convinced that the phenomena are real, or 
ventured to assert that he has discovered a trick and 
shown how it was effected ? It is probable, nay, 
possible, that if they were really the feats of conjurors, 
the manner of performing them would not have been 
discovered by some one of the many witnesses eager 
to dissipate a delusion ? Half-a-dozen visits suffice to 
enable even a stupid spectator to detect the modus 
operandi of the cleverest conjurors ever seen among us ; 
and every trick is to be found fully described in books, 
and may be successfully performed by any person 
willing to take a little trouble in the learning. But 
Psychics of all classes, of both sexes, and of all ages, 
have been observed for thirty years by thousands of 



BY SCIENCE. 21 

persons, sitting at the same table with, them and 
holding their hands and feet, and in no single instance 
has ingenuity or accident discovered the contrivance 
(if it be one) by which what is seen and heard is per- 
formed. Has it never occurred to the critics that if 
Psychics can do by slight of hand or mechanical 
agency what any person may daily witness if he pleases, 
they have no need to remain for a day unknown and 
poor. The skill that could accomplish what takes 
place in their presence, under the vigilant eyes with 
which they are encompassed, would speedily secure for 
them an enormous fortune as mechanicians, or an 
unbounded popularity and profit as prestidigitateurs. 

Not only is the evidence by which the phenomena of 
Psychic Force are established stronger than any upon 
which the criminal courts daily convict and punish 
even with death ; it is at least equal to the evidence 
upon which most of the other sciences are founded. 
The experiments with Psychic Force are in all respects 
as perfect and trustworthy as those exhibited by 
Professor Tyndall at the Eoyal Institution. They are 
as plain to the eye, as palpable to the touch, as audible 
to the ear, as any witnessed in that famous lecture room. 
If the senses can deceive in the one, so are they equally 
liable to be deceived in the other, and the argument of 
imposture would be found equally applicable to both. 
The experiment of the Psychic Force requires certain 
conditions for its production ; so do Dr. Tyndall's ex- 
periments. Those conditions failing, the experiment 
fails, alike with the Psychic and with the Professor. It 
is a favourite argument with opponents of Psychic 
Force, "If it can be done thus, why not thus F" Put 



22 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

the same question to Professor Tyndall ; he would con- 
fess that his experiments also are subject to conditions, 
and that he could not engage to perform one of them if 
conditions other than his own were imposed upon him. 
Occasional failure is a frequent objection to Psychic 
Porce. But the Professor also fails often. Many a 
time I have heard him say to his audience, after a 
failure which opponents might call suspicious, " I tried 
this experiment in my laboratory just before the 
lecture and it succeeded admirably. It fails now, I 
know not why. There are some unfavourable con- 
ditions I cannot discover. These disappointments are 
frequent in science. Nature dictates her own con- 
ditions ; we cannot impose them upon her." But when 
the like failure occurs with an experiment in Psychism, 
and the same reason is assigned for it, opponents ex- 
claim at once — " Manifest imposture ! It failed when 
we sceptics determined the conditions. If it could 
be done at one time, it could be done at another time." 
Yet in what single particular does the case of the 
Psychic differ from that of the Professor? What 
better assurance have we that the experiments we 
behold with so much amazement from the benches of 
the Royal Institution are genuine? Nothing would 
be so easy as imposture there. With his attendant for 
a confederate, a little sleight of hand, and some in- 
genious mechanism, all that Professor Tyndall declares 
that he does might be imposed upon us, and a clever 
trick passed off as a new fact in nature. You ask what 
could be the motive for such a deceit ? The answer is 
that the Professor is paid for lecturing ; that is the ob- 
jection made to experiments with Psychics as honest 



BY SCIENCE. 23 

and honourable as Professor Tyndall. But most of the 
Psychics are in fact unpaid, and therefore they arc 
really less open to the suspicion of unworthy motive 
than is the Professor. 

It is not expected, it is not asked, of any person to 
accept the existence of Psychic Force on faith of the 
sufficiency of the experiments by which conviction of 
its reality was carried to those who witnessed them. 
They ask only that other competent observers should 
pursue a similar course of patient examination, and re- 
port if they also find the phenomena to be facts, and if 
the facts they find point to the like conclusion, or what 
other explanation of them suggests itself to their minds. 
The first step in science is to ascertain, without fear or 
favour, what are the facts, satisfied that, however strange 
or conflicting with established theories these facts may 
appear at first, they will assuredly be found, on further 
investigation, to be in strict accordance with every 
other fact, and to square with every truthful theory. 

Who would have supposed that in these days of free 
inquiry such extreme irritability could be exhibited 
by the Professors of Physical Science at the bare sug- 
gestion of the possible existence of something in man 
that cannot be carved by the scalpel, seen by the mi- 
croscope, and analysed in the laboratory ? Who could 
have anticipated the virulence of hostility with which 
they pursue all who venture to assert that there may be 
psychological facts, dependent on psychological condi- 
tions and governed by psychological laws, distinct from, 
and but imperfectly controlled by, those material laws 
to which alone their useful labours are devoted. Un- 
happily there is a fanaticism of scepticism as well as a 



24 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

fanaticism of faith. Dogmatism is at least as rampant 
in science as in theology. A true Materialist would 
be sorely vexed if it could be demonstrated to him 
that he has an immortal soul. I cannot help suspect- 
ing that this endeavour to deter even from inquiry by 
anticipatory denunciation as fools or rogues of all who 
dare to inquire, is prompted by a suspicion lurking in 
a corner of the minds of the Materialist Philosophers 
that there may be some truth after all in this evidence 
of a Psychic Force : and that, if a truth, it will go far 
to disturb their favourite dogma, that mind is a secre- 
tion of the body ; that life is an arrangement of particles ; 
that there is nothing of us but doth perish and pass 
away ; that we are only animated machines that per- 
form a prescribed task, fall to pieces, and there end. 
I cannot disguise from them, from the reader, or from 
myself, that if the existence of a Psychic Force is the 
fact which, after most careful and anxious examina- 
tion, I am satisfied that it is, and of which I ask others 
to satisfy themselves by a like investigation, it does go 
very far indeed to disturb the Philosophy of Material- 
ism which has taken so strong a hold of the scientific 
world, by the probability it raises that there is a some- 
thing in man, other than the visible material body, 
from which that Force proceeds, or with which it is in- 
timately associated. 

But, however adverse may be the Materialists to 
investigations into facts in nature, tending to prove that 
they and we have an anima, soul (whatever name be 
given to it), and the probability of a future existence 
which such a possession would undoubtedly go far to 
confirm, not merely as a dogma in theology, but as a 



BY SCIENCE. 25 

fact in nature, the question will be admitted to be of 
overwhelming interest. Apart from the new light 
which the existence of Psychic Force, if proved, must 
throw upon many of the obscurities of physiology and 
medicine, the establishment of its truth will open a new 
field to psychological science, give to religion a new 
strength, and encourage in millions hopes and aspira- 
tions which, reluctant though they may be to confess it 
even to themselves, have been painfully shaken by the 
materialism of modern science. 

To conclude this long, but I hope not irrelevant, in- 
troduction, I add a summary of the argument : 

A protracted series of careful experiments has proved 
the existence of certain phenomena. 

These phenomena appear to indicate the existence ot 
a Force, hitherto unrecognised, proceeding from the 
human organisation. 

The asserted phonomena are true or false. 

If true, they demand investigation in order to ascer- 
tain their origin ; if they sustain the suggestion of a 
Psychic Force, or, if not, to what other source can they 
be traced? 

If false, they should be exploded for ever, not by 
mere denial, but by detection and exposure of the con- 
trivances by which they are produced. 

In the one case, the world will profit by an enor- 
mous addition to human knowledge. 

In the other case, it will be benefited by the banish- 
ment of a vast amount of superstition and imposture. 

For either end, the duties of Science are the same — 
a careful, extensive, patieut and unprejudiced examina- 
tion. 



26 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 



THE PHENOMENA. 

When the London Dialectical Society resolved to 
appoint a committee to examine and report upon the 
pretensions of Spiritualism, I entered upon its duties, 
in common with five -sixths of the members of that 
committee, having the most firm conviction that we 
should detect a fraud or dissipate a delusion. I hoped 
that long experience in the work of sifting and weighing 
evidence, and resolving what does or does not constitute 
proof of asserted facts, would enable me to do good 
service in detecting imposture and discovering its contri- 
vances. And such were the aims and the expectations 
of the great majority of my colleagues, comprising men 
of various pursuits and capacities, ingenious lawyers, 
practised scientists, skilful doctors, authors, artists, and 
shrewd men of business — all of them persons with 
keen senses, proved powers of observation, suspecting 
and looking for imposition, and therefore more than 
commonly vigilant with eye and ear and rigid in the 
application of tests. 

Before we commenced to examine, it was our confi- 
dent belief that the alleged phenomena were : 

1. Self-delusion by tbe spectator ; or, 

2. Imposture by the Psychic ; or, 

3. Involuntary and unconscious muscular action. 
With our minds thus prejudiced against the reality 

of the phenomena, we proceeded to their investigation. 



by science. 27 

Investigation by the Sub-committee of the Dia- 
lectical Society. 

It was resolved that we should meet only at the 
private residences, of members of the committee, so as 
to preclude all ' possible pre-arrangement of mechanism 
or other contrivances. 

That no professional medium should be employed. 

That careful notes should be taken of each experi- 
ment and signed for verification by all present. 

A Psychic was found in the person of a Lady, the 
wife of one of- the members of the general committee, 
of high professional and social position. In this we 
were pre-eminently fortunate, for .the Lady in question 
had never witnessed any of the phenomena with others, 
and therefore could not have mastered the sleight of 
hand, requiring the practice of a life for its mastery, 
which would be necessary for the successful performance 
of a trick, if trick it was. In truth, she had dis- 
covered their production in her own presence only by 
chance, a few weeks previously to acceding to the re- 
quest of the sub-committee to assist them in their in- 
vestigations. 

But three or four only of the forty experimental 
meetings of the committee were held at this Lady's 
house ; all the other meetings were held at the houses 
of members, and some of them at my own residence ; 
so that I can affirm positively the absence of any me- 
chanical or other pre arranged contrivances by which 
the phenomena there witnessed could have been pro- 
duced. 

Is it Delusion or Fraud ? 

"We were speedily satisfied that it was not a delusion 



28 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

of the senses. The sounds were distinctly audible to 
the ear, the vibrations palpable to the touch, and the 
motions obvious to sight. It was not a question of 
doubtful mental impression only, but of actual measure- 
ment. The table and other pieces of furniture had 
changed their position by so many inches, feet, yards. 
There could be no possible mistake as to this fact of 
motion. We were compelled to dismiss our theory 
that it was a self-delusion. 

But the motion and sounds may have been produced 
by trickery and fraud. That was our second theory. 
Accordingly we assumed the office of detectives. We 
sat under the table while the motions and sounds were 
most vigorous. We held the hands and feet of the 
Psychic. Every hand in the circle was held by its 
neighbour ; the gas was bright above us ; not a finger 
could have stirred without being perceived by some of 
the many eyes that were keeping watch. Our inge- 
nuity was exercised in the invention and application of 
tests. After trials often repeated we were compelled to 
confess that imposture was out of the question. The mo- 
tions and sounds were undoubtedly real, and were cer- 
tainly not caused by any trickery. 

Is it Unconscious Muscular Action? 

We retreated then upon the third theory, boasting 
Faraday as its parent, and repeated ever since by object- 
ors, who had not seen them, as the easy and sufficient 
explanation of the phenomena we were witnessing — 
namely, involuntary and unconscious action of the 
muscles of those by whom the heavy body was touched. 
" Here," we said, " are eight}^ fingers upon the table. 



BY SCIENCE. 29 

If each one exerts but a pressure so slight as to be im- 
perceptible even to themselves, the aggregate sum of 
pressure will be very considerable. Apply these multi- 
plied pressures at the edge of the table, and every fin- 
ger is converted into a lever of which the centre of the 
table is the fulcrum. Make trial of it and it will be 
found so to be. That the muscles will act unconsciously 
there can be no doubt; and after a lengthened resting of 
the hand in a constrained position there is involuntary 
contraction of the muscles sufficient by the accumulated 
force to cause motion of the table, even though every 
person present should scrupulously endeavour to avoid 
pressure." 

Such was the reasonable argument tha.t led us to look 
to involuntary muscular action as the explanation of 
the motions and sounds that were continually being 
made. To ascertain if this hypothesis was correct, we 
devised a series of tests that should place the matter 
beyond all possible doubt. First, all hands were laid 
upon the table ; then one hand only of each person ; 
then the table was touched by the tips only of all the 
fingers ; then by the fingers of one hand alone ; then 
with one finger only. Still the motions and sounds 
continued with but slightly diminished force. If our 
theory of involuntary pressure was correct, the force 
should have diminished in precise proportion to the 
lessened points of contact. Moreover, it did not ex- 
plain the fact, continually before our eyes, of the table 
being raised several inches from the floor on one side 
only, the muscular action of the fingers upon that side 
of the table being antagonistic and not contributory to 
such a motion ! We continued our exrjeriments with 



30 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

lessened faith in our foregone conclusion. First, one 
person withdrew from all contact ; then a second, and a 
third, until one finger of one person only touched the 
table. Nevertheless it moved, the sounds continued to 
come from it, and a frequent motion was the lifting up 
of the table at the side on which the finger was pressing 
down, if exercising any pressure whatever. I should 
state that at all of these test experiments the tables em- 
ployed were the large and heavy dining tables, some 
nine feet and some twelve feet long, with six legs, in 
common daily use in the dining-room of members of 
the committee, standing upon Turkey carpets, there- 
fore not easily slid and difficult to move by the arm. 
We next tried a more decisive test. All hands were 
joined and held over the table at the height of three 
inches from it, no part of any hand touching it, the room 
being well lighted with gas and all eyes keeping care- 
ful watch over the lifted hands. The sounds were 
heard and the motions produced as before. It was sug- 
gested that* possibly the feet might be at work ; so two 
of the members seated themselves under the table to 
observe. The motions and sounds continued, but not a 
foot stirred. Then all the persons present stood, so that 
no foot could touch the table unseen. Still it moved. 
Lastly we devised a test that conclusively settled the 
question as to the possible agency of muscular action, 
conscious or unconscious. It was contrived thus : All 
present turned the backs of their chairs to the table, 
and kneeling upon the chairs, placed their arms upon 
the backs of the chairs, their hands being extended 
above the table, but without possibility of contact with 
it. The chairs were first placed six inches from the 



BY SCIENCE 31 

table, with which, as the reader will readily under- 
stand, neither foot nor hand, nor any part of the person, 
of any of those present could possibly come into con- 
tact unseen. In this position the table moved eight 
inches over the carpet and tilted several times. The 
chairs were then withdrawn further from the table, on 
each trial to an increased distance, and with the same 
results. At the distance of two feet from it the motions 
were continued, with but slightly diminished power. I 
must repeat that this was tried in the dining-rooms 01 
members, some of them in my own house, with none 
present but the Committee and the Psychic. These 
experiments of motion without contact were repeated 
many times at different meetings in different houses, 
and with the same results. Thus was our third and last 
explanatory conjecture, which we had eagerly accepted 
on the authority of Faraday, completely demolished 
by the facts, and we were compelled reluctantly to 
the conclusion that there is a Force apparently proceed- 
ing from the human organisation by which motion is 
produced in heavy substances without the employment 
of any muscular force, and without contact or material 
connection of any kind between such substances and 
the body of any person present. We agreed also that 
these sounds and motions were directed, frequently by 
some intelligence ; but as the duty of the committee 
was merely to ascertain the facts, and not to inquire 
into causes, with these conclusive proofs of the physical 
facts we closed ■ the investigation and reported accord- 
ingly. 

As many of the reviewers have suppressed the most 
interesting and important part of the volume, the report 



32 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

of the sub-committee, No. 1, appointed to examine the 
phenomena experimentally and 'test it carefully, and 
which held no less than forty meetings for that pur- 
pose, of each of which meetings a report appears in the 
appendix, I introduce here the entire of that Eeport : — 

Since their appointment on the 16th February, 1869, your sub- 
committee have held forty meetings for the purpose of experiment 
and test. 

All of these meetings were held at the private residences of members 
of the committee, purposely to preclude the possibility of pre-ar- 
ranged mechanism or contrivance. 

The furniture of the room in which the experiments were con- 
ducted was on every occasion its accustomed furniture. 

The tables were in all cases heavy dining tables, requiring a strong 
effort to move them. The smallest of them was 5ft. Din. long by 4ft. 
wide, and the largest, 9ft. 3in. long and 4ift. wide, and of propor- 
tionate weight. 

The rooms, tables, and furniture generally were repeatedly sub- 
jected to careful examination before, during, and after the experi- 
ments, to ascertain that no concealed machinery, instrument, or 
other contrivance existed by means of which the sounds or move- 
ments hereinafter mentioned could be caused. 

The experiments were conducted in the light of gas, except on the 
few occasions specially noted in the minutes. 

Your committee have avoided the employment of professional or 
paid mediums, the mediumship being that of members of your sub- 
committee, persons of good social position and of unimpeachable 
integrity, having no pecuniary object to serve, and nothing to gain 
by deception. 

Your committee have held some meetings without the presence 
of a medium (it being understood that throughout this report the 
word "medium " is used simply to designate an individual without 
whose presence the phenomena described either do not occur at all, 
or with greatly diminished force and frequency), purposely to try if 
they could produce, by any efforts effects similar to those witnessed 
when a medium was present. By no endeavours were they enabled 
to produce anything at all resembling the manifestations which took 
place in the presence of a medium. 



BY SCIENCE. 33 

Every test that the combined intelligence of your committee could 
devise has been tried with patience and perseverance. The experi- 
ments were conducted under a great variety of conditions, and in- 
genuity has been exerted in devising plans by which your committee 
might verify their observations and preclude the possibility of im- 
posture or of delusion. 

Your committee have confined their reports to facts witnessed by 
them in their collective capacity, which facts were palpable to the 
senses, and their reality capable of demonstrative proof 

Of the members of your sub-committee about four-fifths entered 
upon the investigation wholly sceptical as to the reality of the alleged 
phenomena, firmly believing them to be the result either of imposture 
or of delusion, or of involuntary muscular action. It was only by irre- 
sistible evidence under conditions that precluded the possibility of 
either of these solutions, and after trial and test many times re- 
peated, that the most sceptical of your sub-committee were slowly 
and reluctantly convinced that the phenomena exhibited in the 
course of their protracted inquiry were veritable facts. 

The result of their long-continued and carefully-conducted experi- 
ments, after trial by every detective test they could devise, has been 
to establish conclusively : 

First : That under certain bodily or mental conditions of one or 
more of the persons present, a force is exhibited sufficient to set in 
motion heavy substances, without the employment of any muscular 
force, without contact or material connection of any kind between 
such substances and the body of any person present. 

Second : That this force can cause sounds to proceed, distinctly 
audible to all present, from solid substances not in contact with, nor 
having any visible or material connection with, the body of any per- 
son present, and which sounds are proved to proceed from such sub- 
stances by the vibrations which are distinctly felt when they are 
touched. 

Third : That this force is frequently directed by intelligence. 

At thirty-four out of the forty meetings of your committee some of 
these phenomena occurred. 

A description of one experiment, and the manner of conducting 
it, will best show the care and caution with which your committee 
have pursued their investigations. 

So long as there was contact, or even the possibility of contact, 
by the hands or feet, or even by the clothes of any j>erson in the 



34: SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

room, with the substance moved or sounded, there could be no per- 
fect assurance that the motions and sounds were not produced by 
the person so in contact. The following experiment was therefore 
tried : 

On an occasion when eleven members of your sub-committee had 
been sitting round one of the dining-tables above described for forty 
minutes, and various motions and sounds had occurred, they, by 
way of test, turned the backs of their chairs to the table, at about 
nine inches from it. They all then knelt upon their chairs, placing 
their arms upon the backs thereof. In this position, their feet 
were of course turned away from the table, and by no possibility 
could be placed under it or touch the floor. The hands of each per- 
son were extended over the table at about four inches from the sur- 
face. Contact, therefore, with any part of the table could not take 
place without detection. 

In less than a minute the table, untouched, moved four times ; at 
first about five inches to one side, then about twelve inches to the 
opposite side, and then, in like manner, four inches and six inches 
respectively. 

The hands of all present were next placed on the backs of their 
chairs, and about a foot from the table, which again moved, as 
before, five times, over spaces varying from four to six inches. Then 
all the chairs were removed twelve inches from the table, and each 
person knelt on his chair as before, this time however folding his 
hands behind his back, his body being thus about eighteen inches 
from the table, and having the back of the chair between himself 
and the table. The table again moved four times, in various direc- 
tions. In the course of this conclusive experiment, and in less than 
half-an-hour, the table thus moved, without contact or possibility of 
of contact with any person present, thirteen times, the movements 
being in different directions, and some of them according to the re- 
quest of various members of your sub-committee. 

The table was then carefully examined, turned upside down and 
taken to pieces, but nothing was discovered to account for the phe- 
nomena. The experiment was conducted throughout in the full 
light of gas above the table. 

Altogether, your sub-committee have witnessed upwards of fifty 
similar motions without contact on eight different evenings, in the 
houses of members of your sub-committee, the most careful tests 
being applied on each occasion. 



BY SCIENCE. 35 

In all similar experiments the possibility of mechanical or other 
contrivance was further negatived by the fact that the movements 
were in various directions — now to one side, then to the other ; now 
up the room, now down the room— motions that would have re- 
quired the co-operation of many hands or feet ; and these, from the 
great size and weight of the tables, could not have been so used 
without the visible exercise of muscular force. Every hand and 
foot was plainly to be seen, and could not have been moved without 
instant detection. 

Delusion was out of the question. The motions were in various 
directions, and were witnessed simultaneously by all present. They 
were matters of measurement, and not of opinion or of fancy. 

And they occurred so often, under so many and such various con- 
ditions, with such safeguards against error or deception, and with 
such invariable results, as to satisfy the members of your sub-com- 
mittee by whom the experiments were tried, wholly sceptical as 
most of them were when they entered upon the investigation, that 
there is a force capable of moving heavy bodies without material contact, and 
which force is in some unknown manner dependent upon the presence of human 



Your sub-committee have not, collectively, obtained any evidence 
as to the nature and source of this force, but simply as to the fact of its 
existence. 

There appears to your committee to be no ground for the popular 
belief that the presence of sceptics interferes in any manner with 
the production or action of the force. 

In conclusion, your committee express their unanimous opinion 
that the one important physical fact thus proved to exist, that 
motion may be produced in solid bodies without material contact, by some 
hitherto unrecognised force operating within an undefined distance from the 
human organism, and beyond the range of muscular action, should be sub- 
jected to further scientific examination, with a view to ascertain its 
true source, nature, and power. 

The notes of the experiment ; made at each meeting of your sub- 
committee are appended to this report. 

Additional Experiments. 
But although as a committee our work was ended, 
the phenomena we had witnessed, and of whose reality 
we were assured by the most conclusive evidence, could 



36 SPIEITUALISM ANSWERED 

not bat induce in the most thoughtful of the members 
various conjectures as to the nature and origin of the 
Force whose existence had thus been exhibited to them, 
and it is not surprising that wide differences of opinion 
should have prevailed among us as to its source. For 
my own part, I resolved to hold my judgment in sus- 
pense, and to continue the investigation with a view to 
learn, if possible, the causes of the phenomena I had 
so unexpectedly witnessed. Accordingly, the experi- 
ments were resumed under new conditions and with 
further tests. ' 

It would be tedious and needless to describe fully 
each of these experiments. Those of the sub-commit- 
tee are fully set forth in the appendix to the published 
report (a) of the Dialectical Society, to which the 
reader is referred. I will merely state briefly the most 
interesting results of these investigations, premising 
that all but three of them were made with unpaid and 
unprofessional Psychics. 

1. The hand of the Psychic being held over it, a 
musical box upon the table, untouched, turned half 
round by four movements. 

2. A sheet of paper was suspended by one corner 
from a pin which the Psychic held at the ends between 
the thumb and fingers, so that the hand could not 
touch the paper. Many taps, as if made with the 
point of a needle, were distinctly heard upon the 
paper. 

3. The sounds frequently seemed to be directed by 

(a) Report of the Committee of the London Dialectical So- 
ciety, on the asserted Phenomena of Spiritualism, p. 407. 



BY SCIENCE. 37 

intelligence. Tbej were made often in pursuance of 
and in answer to requests — as that so many blows 
should be struck, that the tappings should beat time 
to music, that they should be loud or soft, quick or 
slow. 

4. So also, in like manner, the motions of the table, 
when untouched as well as when touched, were in ex- 
act accordance with requests, such as that it should 
tilt on this side or on that so many times. This was 
so frequent an occurrence that it was impossible to 
attribute it to accidental coincidence. So far from 
obedience being rare, as some scientists have conjec- 
tured, failure was the rare exception.. 

5. Occasionally the phenomena continued after the 
departure of the Psychic from the room, but in such 
cases they gradually diminished in power until they 
ceased entirely. 

All the above phenomena were witnessed by the 
Investigation Committee of the Dialectical Society in 
the course of their experiments. The following experi- 
ments were witnessed by myself elsewhere : 

6. The next experiment was with the same Psychic, 
in the house of Dr. Edmunds, with a dining-table of 
unusual weight and size. The same test, by turning 
the backs of the chairs to the table and the experi- 
mentalists kneeling upon them, produced the same 
results, but to a much greater extent than we had be- 
fore witnessed. In that position of the entire party, 
a heavy dining-table moved six times — once over a 
space of eight inches at a swing. Then all the party 
holding hands stood in a circle round the table, at 
the distance from it first, of two feet, and then of 



38 SPIKITUALISM ANSWERED 

three feet, so that contact by any person present was 
physically impossible. In this position the table lurched 
four times, once over a space of more than two feet, and 
with great force. The extent of these movements with- 
out contact will be understood when I state that in the 
course of them this ponderous table turned completely 
round, that is to say, the end that was at the top of the 
room when the experiment began was at the bottom Of 
the room when it concluded. The most remarkable 
part of this experiment was the finale. The table had 
been turned to within two feet of a complete reversal 
of its first position, and was standing out of square 
with the room. The party had broken up and were 
gathered in groups about the room. Suddenly the 
table was swung violently over the two feet of distance 
between its then position and its proper place, and 
set exactly square with the room, literally knocking 
down a lady who was standing in the way, in the act 
of putting on her shawl for departure. At that time 
nobody was touching the table, nor even within reach of 
it, except the. young lady who was knocked down by it. 

7. The next experiment was with another Psychic, 
in another place, but at the house of a personal friend, 
so that I have the best assurance that there could have 
been no such pre-arrangement of mechanism in the 
room as would have been necessary to produce the 
effects I describe. 

It was a double drawing-room, in one of which was 
a table of considerable weight. The Psychic (a Lady 
who was unpaid, but known to be a Psychic), was 
taking tea in one room, and I had gone with three 
friends — one of whom had never before witnessed the 



BY SCIENCE. 39 

phenomena — into the other 'room to look at some 
pictures. "While we were thus engaged, very loud 
sounds, as of violent blows, came from a large loo 
table, which stood -alone in the centre of the room — rco- 
body being near it. We turned to look at the table, and 
untouched it tilted up almost to an angle of 45$, and 
continued in that position for nearly a minute. Then 
it fell back. Then it repeated the movement on the 
other side. None of us were standing within rive feet 
of it at that time. The room was well lighted with 
gas. There was no cloth upon the table, and all 
beneath it was distinctly visible. Only four persons 
were in the room, and no one touched it, nor was near 
enough to touch it had he tried. The Psychic was six 
feet from it. 

8. Alterations in the weight of tables and other 
furniture have been frequently exhibited. Bidding the 
table to be light, a finger lifted it ; the next moment, 
bidding it to be heavy, the entire force of the body 
was required to raise it from the floor. It was, how- 
ever, suggested by myself and others who were engaged 
in the scientific investigation of the phenomena of 
Psychic Force, that possibly this change in the weight 
of the subject of the Force might be merely in our 
own sensations, and not an actual change in the gravity 
of the wood or the operation of any pressure upon it. 
To test this, a weighing machine was constructed with 
a hook to fix to the table, the index accurately marking 
the weight of whatever was attached to it. Applying 
this machine to the table and other bodies, we found 
that the change was really in them, and not sensational 
merely, as we had suspected. This simple experiment 



40 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

was tried so often, and with, so many precautions, as to 
establish it beyond doubt. The weights varied at 
every trial, but all proved the reality of the Force that 
was operating. One instance will suffice. Weighed by 
the machine, the normal weight of a table, raised from 
the floor 18 in. on one side, was 81b. ; desired to be 
light, the index fell to 51b. ; desired to be heavy, it 
advanced to eighty-two pounds ; and these changes were 
instantaneous and repeated many times. 

9. Not only is motion communicated to the table or 
other article of furniture where the Psychic is, but 
everything within some definite, though as yet un- 
defined, distance from the Psychic appears to be sub- 
jected to the Force. The smaller furniture of the 
room is frequently attracted to the place at which the 
Psychic sits. Chairs far out of reach and untouched 
may be seen moving along the floor in a manner sin- 
gularly resembling the motion that may be observed in 
pieces of steel attracted by a magnet, which rise a little, 
fall, move on, stop, until fully within the influence of 
the magnetic force, and then jump to the magnet with 
a sudden spring. The chairs that are so often seen to 
come across a room to the Psychic usually approach 
by irregular motions, gliding for a short space, stopping, 
moving, and so on, until fully within the influence, and 
then the last movement is by a rapid jump. Larger 
articles of furniture are attracted in like manner 
according to weight ; chairs move easily the whole 
length of a large room, a sofa will advance 2ft. or 3ft. 
only. Plainly the Force is limited in power ; it can 
move only a certain weight ; bulk is no impediment to 
its exercise. Nor is this phenomenon at all dubious to 



BY SCIENCE. 41 

the spectator. It cannot be fanciful ; it is not a delusion. 
However it may be done, the fact is indisputable that it 
is done. The chairs start from the wall against which 
they are placed; the sofa rolls forward; the smaller 
tables approach. This occurs in the light of gas, in 
the private room of any person who makes trial of it, 
is seen by all, and often gives inconvenient proof of the 
fact by encompassing the seated circle. At one ex- 
periment six drawing-room chairs were attracted from 
the other side of the room over distances ranging from 
6ft. to 10ft, and thrust themselves against the circle ; 
two large easy chairs advanced 3ft. ; a large settee ad- 
vanced about 2ft. No person was near either of them. 
In another experiment in my own lighted drawing-room, 
as the Psychic was entering the door with -myself, no 
other person being there, an easy chair, of great weight, 
that was standing 14ft. from us, was suddenly lifted 
from the floor, and drawn to him with great rapidity, 
precisely as a huge magnet would attract a mass of 
iron. 

Aee the Spectatoes Biologised? 

There yet remained one solution, often advanced, but 
always by those who have never witnessed the pheno- 
mena, — that the spectators are under the influence of 
electro-biology (whatever that may be), and imagine 
they see what the operator wishes them to see ; that, 
precisely as the biologised patient believes, at the will 
of the operator, that his chair is on fire, so the persons 
about the Psychic, in obedience to the influence of his 
will, suppose that they see and near what is, in fact, 
only a waking dream suggested by him. 



42 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

Improbable as is this ingenious explanation of the 
phenomena described, it is not altogether impossible. 
We certainly believed ourselves to be very wide awake ; 
the same things were seen and heard by all at the same 
moment; actual measurement showed changes in the 
position of the bodies moved ; the vibration caused by 
the sounds we heard were distinct to the touch also. 
Nevertheless, we were most desirous to apply some 
mechanical test, which would preclude the possibility 
of this or any other mental delusion. There is no 
passion, prejudice, or capacity for self-delusion in wood 
and brass, and to that conclusive test it was determined 
to resort Accordingly Mr. Crookes, F.K.S., con- 
structed the apparatus which he has described so fully, 
whereby not only could the existence of any Force be 
demonstrated by delicate tests, but the amount and 
direction of it measured with perfect accuracy. 

Mr. Huggins, F.E.S., the astronomer and spectro- 
scopist, as one practically skilled in the construction 
and working of the most delicate scientific apparatus, 
and myself as having great experience in the sifting 
and weighing of evidence, were invited to witness a 
trial of these experiments. The results have been given 
to the world in the Quarterly Journal of Science, and 
they completely establish the existence of a Force, 
operating within an undefined but not indefinite dis- 
tance from certain persons having some unknown 
specialty of organization, and to which the appropriate 
name has been given of Psychic Force, to distinguish 
it from Muscular force ; the latter operating only with, 
but the former without, actual personal contact 



BY SCIENCE. 43 



WHAT IS THE PSYCHIC FOECE? 

A Fokce is visibly, palpably, audibly operating be- 
fore us. It is manifest to three of our senses. Can all 
of these be deceived ? Is it possible that the three 
senses of ten persons, seeing, hearing, and feeling the 
same thing at the same moment in the same manner, 
can be the dupes of a mere imagination ? Were the 
motions we witnessed real or fanciful ; were the sounds 
we heard actual or ideal ? If what we saw and heard 
was not sufficient proof of the. fact, all evidence is 
worthless and truth is unattainable. On similar evi- 
dence a jury would instantly convict of murder and a 
judge would hang without hesitation. All the business 
of life is conducted in reliance upon less evidence of 
the same senses. If we are to reject the testimony of 
such experiments as these, we must reject all testimony 
of the eye, the ear, and the touch. Three-fourths of 
the sciences are based upon experiments infinitely more 
open to doubt and question than those which establish 
the existence of the Force, whatever it may be, that 
moves and makes audible sounds on heavy bodies with- 
out physical contact or connection. Its existence is de- 
monstrated by evidence as certain and perfect as that 
which proves the existence of electricity, magnetism, 
and other invisible and intangible forces of nature. It 
was impossible for us, with such evidence, repeated 



44 spikituAlism answebid 

thirty-eight times, under various tens* cad divers con- 
ditions, to do other than acknowledge the existence of 
the Force we had thought by oiu experiments to dis- 
prove, although we fail id to come to any satisfactory 
conclusion with respect to the sour ~e and nature of that 
Force. Upon these points very wide differences of 
opinion prevailed, some deeming it to be a spiritual 
presence, others, and the scientific observers especially, 
coinciding with my own conviction that it is a purely 
physical force, proceeding in some as yet untraced man- 
ner from the nerve organization — probably the nerve 
atmosphere which Dr. Eichardson contends is envelop- 
ing all of us, — extended in Psychics to an abnormal 
distance from the extremities of the nerves, and di- 
rected by the same intelligence that governs the action 
of the nerves themselves ; the motive power being fre- 
quently that unconscious action of the brain which Dr. 
Carpenter has investigated with so much ability and 
success, to which he has given the name of " Uncon- 
scious Cerebration," and for asserting which he has been 
so mercilessly accused of gullibility by his brother 
Scientists. 

But it will be just to state fairly the contention on 
either side among those who acknowledge the existence 
of the Force but differ in opinion as to its origin. 

The most numerous, though not the most scientific, 
section are they who, unable to explain the phenomena 
upon the instant, have adopted the time-honoured prac- 
tice of solving a scientific problem by the easy process 
of assigning it to the convenient region of the super- 
natural. As it ever was, so it is now. Each one of 
Nature's Forces has in its turn been attributed to angels 



BY SCIENCE. 45 

or demons, before Science condescended to recognise 
its facts and give them a place in its own domain. As 
soon as the fact is seized, stripped of all that fancy has 
thrown about it, investigated, measured, and found to 
fit, as all facts do, with the natural order of things, that 
fact has instantly ceased to be the subject of super- 
stition. 

So it will be with the Psychic Force. When recog- 
nised by Science as one of the natural forces, it will 
speedily cease to be a superstition itself or the parent 
of superstition. All honour to the man who has bad the 
courage to grapple with it and drag it out of the pos- 
session of Superstition into the domain of Science. 

Wherefore do we call it Psychic Force ? To distin- 
guish it from Muscular Force. 

Distinctly associated with the human organisation, it 
may be, probably it is, that it exists in all human beings 
in greater or less degree ; but so far the evidence is, that 
it is possessed to an extraordinary extent by certain 
persons, to whom the appropriate name of Psychics is 
proposed to be given. It is not exhibited save within 
an undefined, bu t still limited, circle about a Psychic. 
It varies from day to day, from hour to hour, almost 
from minute to minute, according to the nervous condi- 
tion of the Psychic. It issues in pulsations, as was 
plainly manifested in the experiments made with Mr. 
Crookes's mechanism, and minutely described in the 
Quarterly Journal of Science. Whatever affects the 
Psychic instantly affects the Force. It comes with him 
and goes with him. All the conditions, more fully to 
be set out hereafter, point directly to the Psychic as the 
source of it 



46 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

And that is the conclusion of the scientific section of 
the investigators, with few exceptions. 

On the other hand, the majority of the unscientific 
relieve their minds from the disagreeable condition of 
doubt by assuming the Force to be spiritual. This is 
so easy a solution of every problem in nature we 
are unable to solve at once, that it has ever been the 
favourite means of accounting for the unaccountable. 

The Theory of Spiritualism. 

The " Spiritualists," for that is the name they have 
assumed in accordance with their theory, have exercised 
considerable ingenuity in moulding that theory to the 
facts. Their creed, as I gather it from the most intelli- 
gent of its votaries, may be thus briefly described : — 

Man, they say, is composed of body, mind, and spirit. 
A blow will extinguish the mind, and the body in- 
habited by the spirit may continue to live. When the 
body dies, the spirit which occupied it in life passes into 
a new existence, in which, as it was here, it is sur- 
rounded by conditions adapted to its structure as a 
being which by earthly senses is deemed immaterial 
because impalpable to them, but which is really very 
refined matter. Into this new existence it passes pre- 
cisely as it left the present life, taking with it the men- 
tal, but not the bodily, characteristics it had on earth, 
so far as these are adapted to the altered conditions of 
that new existence. The intellect is enlarged to the 
extent only of the increased power of obtaining intelli- 
gence necessarily resulting from exemption from the 
laws of gravitation and the conditions of time and space 
that limit the powers of the spirit while it is in the flesh. 



BY SCIENCE. 47 

The reason, say the Spiritualists, why we are not 
always conscious of the presence of the spirits that are 
thronging everywhere about us is that our senses are 
constructed to perceive only the coarse material of this 
earth, and therefore we cannot perceive the refined mat- 
ter of which a spirit is composed. If a spirit touches 
us, we can no more feel the touch than we can feel the 
particles of musk that another sense tells us are filling 
the room. The disembodied spirit has no means of 
communication with us in ordinary circumstances, be- 
cause its substance is not perceptible by our senses. 

A Psychic (or Medium, as the Spiritualists call him) 
is a person possessing an abnormal amount of animal 
magnetism (which is the name they give to what tve call 
the Psychic Force). This is something that proceeds 
from the human body — matter of some kind projected 
from the whole or part of the structure, and, like the other 
forces of nature, is perceptible to our senses only when 
it meets with some obstacle. All possess it, more or less. 
The medium has it more, and thus attracts it from those 
with whom he is in communication. When this afflu- 
ent substance is sufficiently abundant, the spirits, which 
are always about us, are enabled to use it as a medium 
of communication between themselves and human 
beings. They have power to seize and shape it into a 
substance palpable to our senses. Hence the need for 
the presence of a medium. Hence the uncertainty of 
the manifestations. Hence the continual fluctuations 
of the magnetic material, according to external con- 
ditions of health, atmosphere, temperature, and other 
influences. 

A spirit, say the Spiritualists, of necessity can mani- 



48 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

fest itself to our senses only by assuming a substance 

sufficiently solid to make an impression upon some one 

of them. We might be surrounded by spirits and yet 

be utterly unconscious of their presence. The air may 

be so thronged with them that we could never lift an 

arm without touching or passing through a spirit, and 

yet we might live and die in perfect ignorance of their 

presence, because our senses are incapable of perceiving 

the impressions made by matter more refined than that 

which they are constructed to 2^erceive. 

In this Spiritualist creed there is nothing absolutely 

impossible. It may be that, as Milton sings : 

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth, 
Unseen both when we wake and when we sleep. 

As Lord Lytton says, seeing how life teems in all the 
visible creation, it may be a not unreasonable presump- 
tion that the vast interspaces between the worlds are 
not altogether void of life, and it is conceivable that 
spirit, in its infinite immateriality, may find there a 
dwelling-place. 

But, however ingenious this creed may be, the ques- 
tion is, if it be not purely speculative — a merely fanci- 
ful creation, unsupported by any solid facts? True, 
that it explains all the phenomena of Psychism, but so 
it would explain every other problem in science — and 
it has, in fact, been invoked for that purpose in all 
ages and countries. All of the many marvels of science 
were sought to be explained at first by the easy process 
of referring them to supernatural (or spirit) power, until 
sober-minded men investigated them, and proved them 
to be purely natural, and then they ceased to be the 
subjects of wonder and the basis of superstition. 



BY SCIENCE. 49 

So it will be with the speculations of Spiritualism. 
Touched by Science its visions will vanish, and the 
facts that lie at the bottom of it will become a solid and 
invaluable addition to our knowledge of the physiology 
and psychology of Man, 

The Scientific Theory of Psychic Force. 

On the other hand, the scientific theory of the Psychic 
Force whose existence may now be deemed to be de- 
monstrated, may be shortly stated thus : — 

There is a Force proceeding from, or directly asso- 
ciated with, the human organisation, which, in certain 
persons and under certain conditions, can cause motion 
in heavy bodies, and produce audible and palpable 
pounds in such bodies, without muscular contact or 
any material connection between any person present 
and the heavy body so moved or on which the sounds 
are produced. 

This Force appears to be frequently directed by some 
■ intelligence. 

For the reasons presently to be specified, we conclude 
that this Force is generated in certain persons of pecu- 
liar nervous organisation in sufficient power to operate 
beyond bodily contact. To these persons the Spiritual- 
ists have given the name of "mediums," on the assump- 
tion that they are the means of communication between 
disembodied spirits and the living ; but they who, with 
myself, dispute the theory of Spiritualism, have given 
to those persons the more appropriate name of Psychics. 

There can be little doubt that the Force is possessed 
by every human being, — that it is a necessary condition 
of the living nerve, if, indeed, it be not the vital force 



50 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

itself; but that it is possessed by Psychics in extraordi- 
nary degree. In ordinary persons it ceases to operate 
at or near the extremities of the nerves ; in Psychics it 
flows beyond them in waves of varying volume and 
power. Mr. Crookes, indeed, has recently constructed 
an instrument of extreme delicacy, which seems to 
indicate the existence of the Psychic Force more or 
less in every person with whom he has made trial 
of it. 

The existence of such a Force is asserted by Dr. 
Eichardson, in a recent article in the Popular Science 
Review, in which he contends that there is a nerve fluid 
(or ether), with which the nerves are enveloped, and by 
whose help it is that the motion of their molecules 
communicates sensations and transmits the commands 
of the will. This nerve ether is, he thinks, no other 
than the vital force. It extends with all of us some- 
what beyond the extremities of the nerve structure, 
and even beyond the surface of • the body, encompassing 
us wholly with an envelope of nerve atmosphere, which 
varies in its depth and intensity in various persons. 
This, he contends, will solve many difficult problems in 
Psychology and throw a new light on many obscurities 
in Physiology and Mental Philosophy. 

If Br. Eichardson be confirmed in this discovery, 
there can be little doubt that the Psychic Force is that 
nerve ether or nerve atmosphere. 

But, say the Spiritualists, your Psychic Force is 
directed by some intelligence. How is that to be 
accounted for ? Whence and what is that intelligence ? 
Unless you can show that it proceeds from the Psychic, 
or some person present, you must conclude that it is the 



BY SCIENCE. 51 

product of some other being, and as no other being is 
visibly present that being must be a spirit 

To this argument of the Spiritualists, urged in a 
tone of triumph, the advocates of a Psychic Force have 
an answer, which appears to be complete. 

We contend that the intelligence that directs the Psy- 
chic Force is the intelligence of the Psychic and no other. 
The reasons for such a conclusion will be set forth 
presently a ad will be admitted by the impartial to be 
overwhelming. All the conditions requisite to the 
production and exercise of the Force are consistent 
with its origin in and direction by the Psychic and 
inconsistent with any conceivable action of the dis- 
embodied spirits of the dead. 

But for the manner in which the force may be 
governed I must turn to Dr. Carpenter ; as for its source 
I have referred to the authority of Dr. Eichardson. 

The explanation will be found in Dr. Carpenter's 
theory of " unconscious cerebration," or, in less learned 
language, the capacity of the brain, under certain con- 
ditions, to work, not only without the will, but without 
the consciousness, of the individual. A familiar in- 
stance of this is seen in the case of a person stunned. 
He will walk, talk, return to his home, undress, go to 
bed, although consciousness is annihilated, and when 
he " recovers his senses" as it is called, he has no 
memory of anything, not even of time, from the 
moment when the blow was received to the moment of 
consciousness revived. Another instance is the frequent 
one of somnambulism, natural and artificial, in both of 
which states the brain acts perfectly and often more 
powerfully than in the normal state, while consciousness 



52 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

is suspended. Numerous instances are collected by Dr. 
Carpenter, who attributes to this curious condition most 
of the phenomena of mesmerism, electro-biology, and 
other hitherto mysterious mental states which scientific 
men, unable to explain, have contented themselves 
with denying or ignoring, and unreflecting persons have 
attributed to supernatural influences, as the solution 
nearest at hand. Bat if this be the true cause, nothing 
is more simple and obvious than the application of it 
to the facts that have so long perplexed physiologists 
and mental philosophers, and for accepting which as 
facts (though they could not explain them) so many 
honest observers have been called dupes or knaves. 

This is probably the Intelligence that directs the 
Psychic Force. It is the brain of the Psychic in that 
condition of " unconscious cerebration " of which Dr. 
Carpenter has demonstrated the existence, and which 
he has dared to maintain in defiance of the accusations 
of being gullible made by his scientific brethren, al- 
ways jealous of those who claim the honour of a new 
discovery. 

The Scientific theory, then, which I venture to 
oppose to the Spiritualist theory of phenomena, whose 
existence is demonstrated by evidence as conclusive as 
any that establishes the other facts of Science, is that 
the Force whose operations are seen in the motion of 
heavy bodies when untouched and heard in the audible 
and palpable sounds that come from them, is the Force 
which Dr. Eichardson contends to be always existing 
in the nerve system, and that the Intelligence which as 
certainly often directs that Force is the " Unconscious 
Cerebration " of Dr. Carpenter. 



by science. 53 

The Argument foe the Psychic Theory. 

I now propose to set forth the facts that appear to me 
to give consistent support to the Scientific theory 
thus stated, and to be entirely inconsistent with the 
Spiritualist theory. These are — 

L The necessity for the presence of a human being 
having some unascertained peculiarity of constitution, 
whom the Spiritualists call " a Medium," but to whom 
the Scientists have preferred to give the more scientific 
title of "a Psychic." 

II. A Psychic is a person possessing no known 
superiority of mind or body. He differs in no per- 
ceptible manner from other persons. The faculty is not 
associated with any special intelligence or virtue, nor 
with any condition of health or of disease, nor with 
any sex, age, complexion, or form. A child is usually 
a more powerful Psychic than a man. The possessor 
of the Psychic Force has no consciousness of its 
existence in himself until an accident discovers it 

III. The Psychic is an unconscious agent He can 
neither command nor control the Force. It does not 
come nor depart at his will. He has no more know- 
ledge of its presence than has any of the spectators, 

IV. Psychic Force is always exhibited within a 
limited range from the person of the Psychic. Its 
power appears to decline according to distance, but at 
what ratio remains to be determined. It is, however, 
certain that usually, if not always, it operates far be- 
yond the reach of his muscular powers. 

V. It is sometimes ) but rarely, exhibited when the 
Psychic is alone. As a rule, the presence of other per- 
sons promotes the operations of the Force. 



54 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

VI. For this purpose such other persons must be 
within the range of the Force proceeding from the 
Psychic. 

YII. It is found to be advantageous, though bj no 
means necessary, that the persons present with the 
Psychic should form a circle after the manner of the 
electric chain. The Force is promoted by the joining 
of hands, but almost the same erfect is produced by 
laying the hands on a table or on any other solid body, 
such body appearing to be in the nature of a conduc- 
tor, and possibly of a collector, of the Force. 

VIII. The persons forming the chain may be of any 
age, sex, intelligence, or virtue. Scepticism in no ivay 
impedes the manifestation of the Force. But there are 
certain persons whose presence, from some cause not 
yet ascertained, operates precisely as does the inter- 
position of a non-conducting substance in the electric 
chain. They impede the flow of the Force, but how 
or why we are wholly ignorant. This, however, is of 
unfrequent occurrence, and is no way connected with 
belief or disbelief. Believers are non-conductors equally 
with others. 

IX. It is not known how the Psychic Force is affected 
by the presence of such a person. One probable con- 
jecture is that all human bsings possess Psychic Force 
in a greater or less degree, and that the greater Force 
of the Psychic attracts to itself the lesser Psychic 
Force of the persons with whom he is sitting, the use 
of the circle or chain being to collect and convey the 
Psychic Force of the whole party. 

X. The Force is materially affected by the conditions 
attendant on the formation of the circle. Whatever 



BY SCIENCE. 55 

tends to bring all the minds present into harmonious 
action obviously promotes the action of the Force. 
General conversation on a common topic, prayer, re- 
citation, and, above all, music, are marked and uni- 
versal in their effect of increasing the flow and power 
of the Force. On the contrary, whatever directs the 
various minds in the circle into diverse action, as talk- 
ing on different matters, or on themes creating discord- 
ant opinion or exciting rival emotions, operates invari- 
ably to weaken, and often to extinguish, the Force 
during the continuance of such diversity of mental 
action : and it is revived on recourse to music, or what- 
ever has the effect of restoring harmonious brain 
action. 

Note. — If there be, as many physiologists contend, a stream of 
waves of vital force incessantly thrown off by the nerve centres, and 
to which the name of "brain wave" has been given, it is readily 
intelligible how discordant discussion should dissipate the Psychic 
Force and music promote it. When all the brains present are work- 
ing in harmony, the waves thrown off are synchronous, and all 
swell the flow of the stream through the conductor to the attracting 
Force of the Psychic. But if the actions of the brains are dis- 
cordant, the brain waves, by a well known law, fall foul of each 
other, and being thus partially neutralized, the flow of the stream is 
diminished, and even destroyed. 

XL The condition of the Psychic is found largely 
to affect the exhibition of the Force. Its presence and 
power are dependent upon the state of mind and of 
body in the Psychic, and vary from time to time with 
that state. Often a headache will destroy it ; a cup of 
tea, that revives the nerve energy, revives also the 
Psychic Force. The state of the atmosphere visibly in- 
fluences it. Accordingly as it is wet or dry, cold or 
hot, so is the power lesser or greater. But the state of 



56 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

the weather does not affect all Psychics alike. That 
which gives power to some takes it away from others. 
I know two powerful Psychics in private life, in one of 
whom the force is at zero in hot and moist weather, 
vigorous in cold and dry weather ; in the other, it is 
powerful in the former, almost powerless in the latter. 
But in both the weather that thus differently affects 
their Psychic Force affects also their general health. 

XII. The degree of the Force varies continually 
during the experiments, not merely from hour to hour, 
but almost from minute to minute. The opening of a 
door will sometimes produce an immediate flow of it ; 
the change of two or three degrees of temperature will 
raise qr depress it. In fact, whatever affects the 
Psychic personally, and to a less extent the persons 
with him, affects the power of the Force. 

XIII. The communications made by the intelligence 
that undoubtedly often directs the Force are character- 
istic of the Psychic ; as he is so they are. The lan- 
guage, and even spelling, are such as he uses; the 
ideas are such as he would be likely to possess — neither 
better nor worse. If he were to communicate avowed- 
ly with his own bodily organs, it would be done in 
precisely the same manner. Thus the communications 
in the presence of an English Psychic are in English 
phrase, of a Scotch Psychic in Scotticisms, of a pro- 
vincial in his own provincialisms, of a Frenchman in 
French. The ideas conveyed are those of the Psychic. 
If he is intellectual so are the communications. If vul- 
gar or uneducated so are they. Their religious tone 
varies with the faith of the Psychic. In the presence 
of a Methodist Psychic, the communications are Meth- 



BY SCIENCE. 57 

odistical ; of a Eoman Catholic, decidedly Papistical ; 
with, a Unitarian, free-thinking views prevail. If the 
Psychic cannot spell, the communications are faulty in 
the spelling ; if the Psychic is ignorant of grammar, the 
defect is seen in the sentences spelled by the Force. 
If the Psychic is ill-informed on matters of fact, as in 
science, and such like, the alleged spirit messages ex- 
hibit the same errors, and if the communication has 
relation to a future state, the descriptions given of that 
sphere of existence are in strict accordance with the 
notions which such a person as the Psychic might be 
expected to entertain of it 

Note. — I am aware that the answer of the Spiritualists to this 
patent objection is the ingenious one, that when the spirit quits its 
mortal tenement, it carries with it all the mental qualities and facul- 
ties it possessed here — the same knowledge and no other, and that 
in its new sphere of existence it can obtain further intelligence only 
by the same process of instruction as in this world. Hence its in- 
ability to give any new knowledge. It is further asserted that we 
who are in the flesh are attended only by spirits who sympathize 
with our own mental condition, and hence the resemblances I have 
stated between their communications and the mental condition of 
the Psychic. But the reader will say if this is not more like a clever 
theory, invented to explain the facts, than the natural deduction 
from the facts themselves. It appears to me to be incredible that 
the soul, having passed from this world into a new stage of exist- 
ence, with powers enlarged to, at least, the extent necessarily conse- 
quent upon the condition of immateriality, and its resulting exemp- 
tion from the laws of gravitation, and from time and space as con- 
ceived by the material brain, should not be better informed than we 
who are in the flesh can be as to which of many religions is the 
true one. Yet do we find different communications, eq lally alleged 
to be spiritual, differing essentially as to what is the truth, each de- 
claring with the same positiveness that its own creed is the only 
true one, and that creed being always the creed of the Psychic. 

XIY. The Force exhibits itself in pulsations or un- 



58 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

dulatioDS. It is never steadily continuous. Moreover 
it is rhythmical in its exhibitions, coming at equal 
intervals. The rappings are very regular ; the motions 
of heavy bodies observe perfect time. The tremors of 
the table, of the chair, of the floor of the room, are as 
rapid and as regular as the waves of light or sound. 
When a table or a chair rises from the floor, it does not 
ascend with a jerk, as if pushed up, nor descend with a 
thump, as if a sustaining hand had been removed from 
it. It soars and sinks like a balloon, precisely as if it 
had been released from the force of gravity, and was 
going upward by its own levity. The difference of the 
sensation between the operation of the Psychic Force 
and of muscular force is in this particular so manifest 
as to be palpable instantly to everybody who witnesses 
it. When solid bodies are seen to rise without contact, 
the motion is very peculiar and always the same. 
They do not dart straight up, like a balloon, but with a 
swinging motion, much like that of a pendulum. They 
do not remain still when at the highest ascent, but quiver 
with immense rapidity or continue the pendulous mo- 
tion, and return with an irregular hesitating descent, 
after the manner of a parachute. In Mr. Crookes's 
experiments with the mechanical board, this pulsatory 
motion was very distinctly marked, the indicator at-, 
tached to the balance showing an incessant tremulous 
up and down movement throughout the operation of 
the Force, such movement being manifestly the flow of 
the Force in synchronous waves varying in intensity. 

XV. The Force is materially influenced by the elec- 
tric and magnetic conditions of the atmosphere and of 
surrounding bodies ; by heat and cold, by moisture and 



BY SCIENCE. 59 

dryness, and still more by the nervous condition of the 
persons present, and especially of the Psychic. 

Note. — These conditions are precisely such as would be likely to 
affect the flow of the Force from the Psychic, but difficult to assert 
as being likely to affect disembodied spirits. It cannot be said to 
be impossible, but it is certainly highly improbable that spirits, ac- 
cording to any reasonable conception of their nature, could be im- 
peded in their action, by a shower of rain, a close room, the order in 
which people sit, the headache of one person and the toothache of 
another. But these incidents would necessarily affect a Psychic 
Force. 

XYI. The Force is not exhibited immediately, save 
in rare instances. There is an interval of more or less 
duration, frequently above half an hour, before any 
symptoms of its presence are shown. Let a stetho- 
scope be then applied to the table, and faint creakings 
are audible in the body, not at the surface, of the wood, 
as if a pin was striking its fibres. The sounds grow 
louder by degrees, and occasionally are so loud as to be 
audible in distant rooms, and they proceed from the 
wall, the ceiling, and pieces of furniture far beyond the 
reach of the Psychic, as well as from the table at which 
the party is seated. Wherever heard they appear to 
proceed from within, rather than from the surface. The 
vibrations are distinctly felt by the hand, insomuch 
that a deaf person can usually discover the blows and 
their communications as readily as they who have the 
use of their ears. The motions also grow in vigour ; 
they begin with a faint tremor, then a violent shaking 
of the entire fabric ; then tiltings, now on this side, now 
on that, and then rising from the ground, all which con- 
ditions indicate the operation of a purely mundane 



60 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

force. The process is similar to that seen in the gather- 
ing of the electric force ; it must be accumulated before 
it becomes powerful, or even sensible to as — at least, 
there is waiting for an indefinite time, and then a slow 
but steady growth of the Force, and ultimately the 
Psychic becomes exhausted by the process. 

XVII. Anything that strongly diverts the mind of 
the Psychic or the thoughts of the persons present 
always diminishes the Force. 

XVIII. The presence of a sceptic is no obstacle to 
the exhibition of the Force. It is otherwise with posi- 
tive antagonism. By disturbing the mind of the Psy- 
chic, and perhaps of others, it probably destroys that 
harmonious action of the brain which appears to be 
essential to the operation of the Psychic Force. 

Note. — All of the above conditions are wholly inconsistent with 
the spiritual theory, and entirely consistent with the physical 
theory, of the origin of this Force. 

XIX. So far as I have found in my own experi- 
ments, and by the reported experience of others, it ap- 
pears that the intelligence of the communications is 
measured by the intelligence of the Psychic. Nothing 
is conveyed by them that is not in the mind of the 
Psychic or of some person present. 

XX. There is nothing in the character or substance 
of the communications indicating an intelligence higher 
than our own, or a larger knowledge. They are often 
useless and purposeless ; they are rarely absolute non- 
sense ; but as rarely do they exhibit anything beyond 
ordinary intelligence. They consist mainly of moral 
platitudes ; both the thoughts and the language reflect 
precisely the thoughts and language of the Psychic. 



BY SCIENCE. 61 

XXI. Not unfrequently the communications are 
false in point of fact. They are often tentative, as if 
the directing intelligence had an imperfect perception 
of the object or subject, or as if it were guessing rather 
than knowing the answer to be given. 

XXII. The descriptions of the future life are pre- 
cisely such as the Psychic would form. By a child 
Psychic they are painted according to a child's notion 
of heaven ; and when the Psychic is a man or a woman, 
they are described in accordance with the particular 
conceptions of a heaven entertained by that Psychic. 

Note. — These differences as to the process of death and the con- 
ditions of a future life prove that the descriptions do not proceed 
from any intelligence actually acquainted with them, and therefore 
not from the spirits of the dead. 

XXIII. The movements of solid bodies, as pre- 
viously described, when made without contact, are, if 
not always, almost always towards the Psychic : and, 
as if by some, attractive force in him, the chairs and 
other furniture that appear to move spontaneously from 
their places, at whatever distance from the Psychic, in- 
variably advance towards him in a direct line, if some 
obstacle is not interposed. When a chair, for instance, 
comes to the side of the table that is opposite to him, it 
is because the table stands in the path of a straight line 
from the spot whence it started to the Psychic. 

Note. — I am informed that this attraction to the Psychic is not 
always seen, but that sometimes, though rarely, solid bodies appear 
to be repelled, and to move from him. I am narrating only my own 
experiments, and I have never witnessed an instance of a repulsive 
motion. Every spontaneous movement of furniture, within my own 
observation, has been in a direction towards the Psychic. "What can 



62 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

raise a stronger presumption than this, that the attractive force is 
in the Psychic ? Indeed, the Spiritualists find themselves compelled 
to admit the existence of a Psychic Force (calling it magnetic), but 
they account for the facts stated above by the ingenious but wholly 
conjectural explanation that the disembodied spirits, by whom the 
motions, sounds, and communications are believed by them to be 
made, gather up and employ the magnetism of the Psychic as the 
material by which they are enabled to manifest themselves to mortal 
senses, and that thence arises the remarkable similarity which the 
acts done, and the communications made, invariably bear to the 
mental character and intelligence of the Psychic. 

Such being some of the principal conditions that I 
have noted as attending the manifestations of the Psy- 
chic Force, what are the conclusions to which they 
point ? 

First, that the Psychic Force itself proceeds from, or 
in some unknown manner is associated with, the human 
organisation. 

Second, that it is controlled and directed by the in- 
telligence of the Psychic. 

The manner in which this is effected is undiscovered, 
because as yet it has not been examined scientifically. 

That it is the result of an unconscious action of the 
brain, the ganglion,, or the nerves, will probably be 
deemed by those who have closely noted the pheno- 
mena to be sufficiently established. The attention of 
the Psychic does not require to be fixed upon what is 
going on. Answers are given to questions while the 
Psychic is conversing on other subjects, and even when 
the questions are put so faintly that he could not hear 
them had he been listening instead of talking. 

And not only are all of these ascertained conditions 
consistent with the scientific conclusion, that the Force 
both proceeds from, and is directed by the intelligence 



BY SCIENCE. 63 

of, the Psychic, but they are inconsistent with the 
Spiritualist theory, that they are the doings of the dis- 
embodied spirits of the dead. All is precisely as 
might be anticipated of the Psychic that he would act 
and speak in such case ; nothing is done or commu- 
nicated in any fashion such as might reasonably be 
supposed that a disembodied spirit would do or say. 

In such circumstances, the course prescribed alike by 
Science and common sense is to accept the near and 
natural solution in preference to the distant and the 
supernatural. There is a Force visibly, audibly, and 
palpably at work, and it is undoubtedly directed by in- 
telligence. Whence does it come ? Either from one 
or more or all of the persons present, or from some in- 
visible being. If all the conditions attending the ope- 
rations of the Force are consistent with the former and 
inconsistent with the latter hypothesis, science, reason, 
and common sense direct us to prefer the former — to 
accept the theory of Psychism in preference to the 
theory of Spiritualism. 



64 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 



CHAEACTEEISTICS OF THE FOECE. 

The term Psychic Force has been employed to de- 
scribe the power or influence that either proceeds from 
or is intimately associated with the human organisation, 
not as being a perfect name for it, but for want of a 
fitter one. We call it a Force because many of the 
phenomena present the results of force. But it must not 
therefore be taken as an affirmation on the part of those 
who, with myself, assert the theory of its human origin, 
and contend that it falls within the proper domain of 
science, that it necessarily resembles the other powers in 
nature to which science has given the name of " forces." 
The notion of the forces of heat, light, magnetism, 
electricity, galvanism (be they the same or many), is 
that of particles in motion, making themselves percepti- 
ble to our senses when they strike against some opposing 
matter, though that is very difficult to comprehend, 
seeing that magnetism, like Psychic Force, operates, 
although a solid body is interposed between the mag- 
net and the object it attracts. But it does not follow 
that in this particular Psychic Force should resemble 
those other forces. We call it a force for convenience, 
and for lack of a better term ; but it is doubtful if, 
strictly speaking, it be & force — if it be not more in the 
nature of an influence than of motion of particles pro- 
jected and impinging on other bodies and by the im- 



BY SCIENCE. 65 

pact causing motions and sounds on the bodies struck. 
The subject is extremely obscure, very little endeavour 
having been made to examine it patiently, with experi- 
ments and tests guided by sagacity, as Science has in- 
vestigated other phenomena, and with a sincere desire 
to learn the very truth, however disturbing that truth 
may be to accepted principles and opinions. 

With this protest against a possible misunderstand- 
ing of our meaning when we talk of Psychic Force, I 
ask a short consideration of its foremost characteristics. 

I. The force, or influence, comes in waves that are 
in rapid motion, rising and falling continually. The 
waves are generally synchronous, but of uneven magni- 
tude. They are more or less tremulous to the percep- 
tive sense. The things moved by it, whatever they may 
be, with rare exceptions quiver, in this particular differ- 
ing in a very marked manner from muscular force, 
which is exercised either by sudden impact in the shape 
of a push or blow or by steady pressure. This differ- 
ence in the character of Psychic Force at once distin- 
guishes it from muscular force, and is of itself satisfactory 
proof that the phenomena are not the result of muscular 
action, either designed or unconscious. 

II. In another respect the Psychic Force operates 
upon the bodies subjected to it in a manner altogether 
unlike muscular force. It is neither a blow, a push, 
nor a pressure. If the subject of the experiment be a 
table, for instance, the sounds are not upon the surface, 
as if something had struck the wood, but as if they 
were produced in the fibrous centre of the slab. The 
vibration is more palpable to the touch than when a 
blow of equal loudness is made upon the table. The 



t>0 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

sound differs much from that produced by the finger or 
by any instrument of wood or metal, insomuch that a 
very brief experience suffices to enable the ear instantly 
to discover the difference between artificial sounds and 
the true sound of the Psychic Force. 

So it is with motions of solid bodies caused by the 
Psychic Force. They have a special character. In 
addition to the curious tremulousness or quivering that 
attends these motions, they appear to be caused by 
power exercised in a manner differing widely from 
that of muscular action. An arm, for instance, applies 
its force to one part of the subject only, and by no con- 
trivance can extend that force equally over the whole 
body. To refer again to the familiar instance of a table. 
Muscular -force, as of an arm, might raise or depress the 
table on the side at which it is used — by application 
above, it would be depressed; by application below, 
it would be raised — but only at the point of contact ; 
and the foot applied to the leg of the table might lift it 
on that side, but could not possibly depress it. The table 
could not be raised entirely from the floor by any one 
or more persons applying muscular pressure on one side 
only, because of the inability to diffuse muscular force 
equally throughout the entire body to be moved. A 
table could be raised from the floor, preserving its hori- 
zontal position, only by the application of the equal 
muscular force of two persons, at the least, standing on 
opposite sides. This is another proof that Psychic 
Force is not muscular force, for scarcely an experiment 
can be tried with a Psychic without motions of the 
table being produced on the side of the table opposite 
to that at which he is seated, and in a position which 



BY SCIENCE. 67 

makes the application of muscular force by Mm to that 
part of the table a sheer impossibility. 

III. The Psychic Force appears to diffuse itself over 
the entire of the body to which it is applied, and to 
exercise itself in any part of that body with equal 
power and facility. The sides of the table opposite to 
the Psychic, far out of reach of muscular contact by 
him, are raised or depressed, and the sounds proceed 
from those parts quite as frequently and as vigorously 
as at the side of the table at which he is sitting, or 
within the reach of his muscular powers. 

IV. The Psychic Force, unlike muscular force, does 
not appear to operate by pressure ; it is more in the 
nature of diffusion and inflation ; it is apparently a 
Force the material of which is wholly unknown to us. 
The bodies moved by it are not moved by a jerk, or 
by upward or downward continuous pressure applied 
to one portion of the subject only ; the Psychic Force 
seems to diffuse itself through the whole substance of 
the thing moved. Thus, if it be a table, it is raised, 
not as by a force applied below, but as if by the levi- 
tation of the material of which it is composed. When 
it rises from the floor it mounts like a balloon. If 
the hand is pressed upon it in its ascent, instead of 
depressing it on that side and feeling a counter- 
pressure of resistance in some special part of it, the 
sensation to the touch is that of a floating body rising 
because it is lighter than the air : a sensation that 
will be at once recognised by those who have ever 
amused themselves with toy balloons. It hovers in 
the air like a floating, not like a lifted, body, and it de- 
scends generally with more or less of a pendulous 



68 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

motion, as in a descending balloon, or a parachute. 
It never falls down like a solid mass. 

V. From these characteristics of the action of Psychic 
Force, I am inclined to the conjecture (for as yet it is 
little more), that it is a force antagonistic to gravita- 
tion, or in some unknown manner exempt from the in- 
fluence of gravitation, or at least that it operates to 
counteract the force of gravitation on the bodies in 
which it is diffused. 

VI. This conjecture as to the nature of the Psychic 
Force appears to derive some confirmation from the 
process required for its exhibition. Muscular force 
needs no preparation for its exercise. An arm or a 
foot can be raised and will app]y the same amount 
of force in an instant as in an hour. It cannot be 
accumulated in any body. The continued pressure 
of the hands upon a table does not increase the 
amount of muscular force applied to the table. That 
which enters at the point of contact is absorbed by the 
force of gravitation as fast as it is evolved, and at the 
end of half-an-hour the table cannot be moved more 
easily than at the end of a minute. 

But the Psychic Force is evidently capable of ac- 
cumulation. It grows by slow degrees. A lapse of 
time, varying according to many conditions not yet 
examined, is requisite before a sufficiency of it is in- 
fused into the subject to produce any perceptible effect. 
First come delicate sounds, audible only by help of a 
stethoscope ; then these grow louder, and can be heard 
by the ear and felt by the hand ; and then come the 
motions that no person who has once witnessed them 
can either imagine or mistake. But all this is mani- 



BY SCIENCE. 69 

festly the evidence of an accumulation of force, as 
electricity is accumulated in a battery, or magnetism 
in a coil ; and the sitting with the hands upon the 
table is the process of charging it (if I may use the 
term) with the Psychic Force, which all human beings 
possess in. a greater or lesser degree, but which the 
Psychic possesses in an abnormal degree, combined 
with the power of directing it, when so accumulated, 
in some manner as yet unknown, but which it should 
be the business of Science to discover. 



70 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 



CONCLUSION. 

From the above experiments it is not unreasonable 
that thej who witnessed them should have concluded — 

I. That there is a Force other than the Forces of 
Nature hitherto recognised. But whether it is the one 
Force which is said to change merely its form according 
to the substance in which it is exhibited, or a Force 
entirely distinct from the known Physical Forces, and 
subject to other laws associated with vitality, there is 
not as yet sufficient evidence to determine. 

II. That this Force produces positive sounds and 
motions in solid bodies brought within the radius of its 
influence. 

III. That this Force is found to operate at an un- 
defined, but not indefinite, distance from the human 
body. 

IY. That it is developed (so as to be perceptible to 
the senses by its effects) in certain persons only, to 
whom the name of Psychics has been given. 

V. That Psychics are not distinguished from other 
persons by any perceptible peculiarity of mental or 
bodily organisation. They are of either sex, of all 
ages, of all degrees of intelligence, of varying physical 
powers, of all degrees of bodily health, of all countries 
and races. 

VL That there is some, but not sufficient, evidence, 



BY SCIENCE. 71 

that the power of a Psychic is a special faculty (such 
as is a genius for music, poetry, &c.) and that it is often 
inherited. 

VIL That it is probable (but not yet proved), that 
this Force proceeds from, or is intimately associated 
with, the nerve organisation, and is possessed by all 
human beings in a greater or less degree, but in their 
ordinary conditions producing no external effects per- 
ceptible by the senses ; that when possessed to an ex- 
traordinary extent, this Force is projected beyond the 
body, and causes motions and sounds in the objects 
permeated by it, or upon which it impinges. 

VIIL That there is some, but not yet sufficient, 
evidence, that Psychic Force, and what physiologists 
have termed " vital force," and Dr. Bichardson the 
" nerve ether," are identical. 

IX That in some manner, as yet not investigated and 
therefore not ascertained, a concurrence of the Psychic 
Forces of several persons promotes the activity of the 
Force exhibited by the Psychic. 

X. That it is as yet undetermined whether it is the 
possession of Psychic Force in a rare degree that 
makes itself perceptible by its operation upon solid 
bodies, or if a Psychic is only a person who has not 
in himself a greater amount of the Force than others, 
but who possesses the power of attracting the combined 
Psychic Forces of the persons who are within a certain 
undefined radius from himself. 

XL That the Psychic Force is controlled and directed 
by the intelligence of the Psychic. That this in- 
telligence frequently acts without consciousness by the 
Psychic. But if such action is that of the brain, or of 



72 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

an individuality distinct from the brain and incorporeal, 
there is as jet no sufficient evidence. 

XII. That the condition of the Psychic during such 
unconscious direction of the Force is generally similar 
to, if not identical with, that of the somnambulist, 
whose intelligent acts are the result of unconscious 
action of the brain, which not only dreams, but causes 
the patient to act the dream. 

These are the results, concisely stated, obtained to 
the present time, of a scientific investigation into 
Psychic Force. It will be seen that they are, as from 
the recency of the procurement of proofs of the 
existence of the Force might have been surmised, as 
yet very imperfect. A few facts have been ascertained, 
but many more are yet in a dubious stage, awaiting 
further examination. The conditions under which the 
Psychic Force exists and is evolved and directed have 
been insufficiently examined, and there are numerous 
points in the wide field thus open to investigators to 
which their attention may be advantageously directed. 
I venture to state a few of these, in the hope that they 
will stimulate some readers to a course of experiment 
and test, with a view to obtain satisfactory solutions. 

I. What are the precise measured distances from 
the Psychic to which the Psychic Force is found to 
extend ? 

- II Does the Force diminish, according to distance 
from the Psychic, and if so, in what ratio ? 

III. What relationship do heat, moisture, electricity, 
and terrestrial magnetism severally bear to the amount 
of the Force exhibited? 



BY SCIENCE. 73 

IV. To what extent is the Force affected by the num- 
ber of persons forming the chain ? 

Y. Is there any, and how much, increase in the Force 
by the formation of a chain of nerve organizations, and 
in what degree by extension of the chain ? Is the effect 
the same if the same persons are merely grouped to- 
•gether near to the Psychic without forming a circle or 
in any manner uniting the Psychic Force possessed by 
each person, except by the common link of the floor on 
which they stand ? 

YI. Is the concentration or direction of the Force 
affected to any extent by the material of which is form- 
ed the table or other body used as a conductor or col- 
lector of the Force ? Is metal more or less favourable 
to the exhibition of the Force than wood ; and is one 
kind of wood more favourable than another kind ? 

YIL Does any advantage accrue in fact from actual 
contact of the persons present : and does not the table 
or other conductor employed equally serve for conduct- 
ing or collecting the Force ? 

YIIL By what process is it that the unconscious 
action of >the brain, asserted by Dr. Carpenter, directs 
the Psychic Force to intelligent purposes ? 

I shall esteem it an obligation if any reader pursuing 
this interesting and most important investigation into 
the nature and operations of Psychic Force will com- 
municate to me the results of his experiments ; for it is 
only by a large accumulation of facts, and a multitude 
of observations, made under a variety of conditions, that 
this branch of the science of Psychology can be ad- 
vanced. Careful note should be taken of all trials, and 



74 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

whatever is capable of actual measurement should be 
determined by rule or by scales. 

/ Let it once be recognised that this is a s abject for 
Science, and not a mere structure of imagination nor a 
superstition erected upon a basis of fact, and there 
will be an end to the strange aversion now felt to the 
examination of phenomena which, if established, musj 
throw a blaze of light on many of the obscurities of 
Physiology and mysteries of medicine. 

Brought within the domain of Science, the facts re- 
cognised, examined, and traced to their sources, so 
much as is true will be added to the store of know- 
ledge ; so much as is false, or which fancy may have 
erected upon the facts, will be dissipated. It is thus, 
and only thus, that Science can effectually banish 
Superstition. 



BY SCIENCE. 75 



HOW TO INVESTIGATE. 

To those who maybe desirous to aid the investigation 
now in progress, a few suggestions of the best means of 
doing so will doubtless be welcome. 

There is an erroneous impression that none but 
professional Psychics are to be found. In truth, 
Psychics are frequent in private life, and especially 
among children. There are few family circles in which 
they may not be discovered by patient experiment 
As there is nothing in mind, person, or manner to in- 
dicate an organisation having such an excess of Psychic 
Force as to produce the phenomena of Psychism, its 
existence can only be discovered by trials repeatedly 
made with the same circle. The process is very simple. 
Not less than five nor more than nine should form a 
party, who should meet twice or thrice a week (the more 
frequently the better). Instead of lounging before the 
fire, they should seat themselves at a table, lay their 
hands upon it, and in that position continue their chat, 
mingled with music and song. It is as easy to 1 enjoy a 
social gathering seated thus as in any other grouping. 
If there is neither sound nor motion in the table in an 
hour, break up the circle, take tea, talk, and in half an 
hour re-form it — that is, if none are weary, for in such 
case the trial should end at once. There should be no 
disappointment if nothing comes, but it should be tried 
again and again, always preserving the same circle. If 



76 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 

one of the party is a Psychic, signs of it will probably 
appear by the sixth sitting, and then it can be readily 
ascertained who the Psychic is by each one in turn 
quitting the circle, and thus discovering whose presence 
is necessary to the action of the Force. As soon as 
sounds and motions are presented, careful note should 
be taken of the phenomena occurring at every future 
meeting, and experiments and tests devised and tried 
for the purpose of ascertaining the conditions under 
which the phenomena appear, and thus to aid the 
inquiry into their cause which is now being so ex- 
tensively and actively pursued in all parts of the 
country. 

It has been calculated that about one person in thirty 
is a Psychic in England, and about one person in 
twenty in Scotland and America, the faculty being ob- 
viously much more powerfully developed in certain 
races of men than in others. As I have stated above, 
it is very frequent with children, and often disappears 
from them entirely at pnberty. Infants in arms are 
sometimes Psychics, and there is said to be an instant 
and marked increase of the Force when they are taken 
into the circle or even brought into the room. In one 
instance within my own observation the entry of a servant 
with a message was instantly followed by a manifest 
access of the Force, shown as the door opened, continu- 
ing while she was in the room, and declining when she 
left it. Where a child is a Psychic, it will be desirable 
to ascertain the nature of the intelligence that then 
directs the Force — if it is that of a child — and in the 
case of an infant Psychic if any intelligence what- 
ever is exhibited by the Force — and I shall be 



BY SCIENCE. 77 

greatly obliged by information of actual experiences on 
these points, whose importance will be obvious at a 
glance. 

A table is not necessary to the operation of the 
Force. Any solid body that connects the persons forming 
the chain is equally efficient. But a table is found to 
be the most convenient subject for experiment, as it 
enables the party to be comfortably seated and to 
converse at ease. 



78 SPIRITUALISM ANSWERED 



POSTSCRIPT. 

Since these pages were printed, the Quarterly Review 
has made a second edition an occasion for publishing 
what is probably intended to be a confession of errors 
and an apology; or rather an excuse for its unjustifi- 
able personal attacks upon the constructor and wit- 
nesses of a scientific experiment. It frankly admits 
the falsity of its assertion that Dr. Huggins and myself 
are converts to the creed of Spiritualism, but it has not 
the grace to express regret for the vilification in which 
it had indulged on that utterly false assumption. 

The writer endeavours to excuse himself by stating 
that he was misled by an article in The Spiritualist 
But how unjustifiable is the carelessness that could per- 
mit a man to write and print two pages of virulent per- 
sonal abuse and insult of three gentlemen, based on no 
better authority than an anonymous paragraph in an 
obscure journal, when the writer had before him the 
original publication by Mr. Crookes himself, a glance 
at which would have shown him not only that his as- 
sumption was false but that the fact was the very 
reverse. 

But even this lame excuse cannot be accepted, for, in 
the abusive article, the reviewer actually cites a pas- 
sage from the very letter in which I expressly and em- 
phatically assert that the result of the investigation had 
been to satisfy me that there was no evidence to sup- 
port the theory of Spiritualism ; thus proving beyond 



BY SCIENCE. 79 

question that he had read my letter, and therefore must 
have known, and did know, that I had repudiated the 
theory of Spiritualism when he deliberately dared to 
call me a convert to it. 

But the carelessness — to use the mildest term — of the 
reviewer, is such that he cannot even correct one error 
without falling into other blunders. He states now that 
I reject both Spiritualism and the Psychic Force. The 
letter he cites is throughout a declaration of conviction 
that the Force exists as a fact, though its source is yet 
to be ascertained, and the proposal which gave it the 
name which has been universally accepted for it was 
mine! 

I am, however, delighted to find, by a note appended 
to this "apology/' " confession, " "explanation," or 
whatever it may be termed, that the authorship of the 
article has been erroneously" attributed to Dr. Carpen- 
ter. I had already ventured to express a doubt of its 
reported paternity, because I could not believe that a 
man of his scientific and professional status could so 
forget the gentleman as in a purely scientific contro- 
versy to be guilty of the mingled mendacity and mean- 
ness that pervade the personalities of the article in the 
Quarterly Review. 

12th December, 1871. 



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OF 

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